Our own Amazing Race…30 Days…3 countries…2 very tired people

by | Jul 1, 2024 | Uncategorized

This is the last post of a 30-day trip. It is going to be written over a very long day or two. I am starting this while sitting in the lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn at London Heathrow. It is 6:08 a.m. here in London. We flew in here from Copenhagen on SAS yesterday, and we will fly home at 12:45 p.m., arriving at SeaTac in Seattle at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon. So it is going to be a long day.

The worst part of any vacation for us is flying…and airports—just the total hassle of them. As we have gotten older, it becomes more and more of a hassle every time. I do my best to make it better, and some stupid thing (like yesterday’s screwup on Passport Control in Copenhagen) screws up the entire plan. I will let you know how the whole day went before I finish this post.

Air travel is also strange. It messes with my head. For instance, I sit here now in London at 6:00 am, knowing that before I go to bed tonight, in my own bed, in Redmond, I will have boarded a plane, flown nine hours, gotten off the plane, cleared Passport Control again, been driven home, unpacked, gone shopping for groceries, grabbed takeout Mexican food from Ooba, eaten it and watched a few TV shows we have to catch up on. By the time my head hits the pillow in Redmond, it will be 5:00 a.m. here in London. When is Scotty going to invent the Star Trek Transporter so they can just beam me up and beam me down? That’s what I want.

I should also add that we have those miserable Virgin Atlantic Upper-Class seats to contend with on the way home. No recline unless you flip them into a bed. And while I can usually sleep on the way out from the USA to Europe, going back is much worse as it never gets dark. When we arrive, it will only be a couple of hours before my usual bedtime, but at the same time, the middle of the afternoon and there will be lots of stuff I need to do…one of them is getting back on schedule for PDST.

So, let’s get this review of our Viking Venus cruise on the way. To sum it up in one sentence, although there were tiny things that irked us just a little bit, this may have been the best overall cruise experience we have had (other than Celebrity Flora in the Galapagos—but that’s a yacht, not a cruise ship) so far. And this is our 39th cruise. That says a lot.

What we loved
  1. Our Stateroom. I detailed that with photos on this page you will find by clicking here. Stateroom 5030, our home for the last two weeks, is ideal. Big enough that I am not stubbing my toes to get around the bed, it has plenty of storage, a great verandah and, as far as I am concerned, the perfect spot on the ship. Deck five on a Viking ship means only two flights up (I never take elevators on a cruise except to bring luggage on or off the ship) to the buffet and Explorer’s Lounge (my favorite place on a Viking Ship) and only three flights down to the specialty restaurants, the Living Room and to get off and on the ship in most ports.
  2. The ship. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And to my eye, Viking Ocean ships are just about perfect when it comes to appearance. Nothing ever jars my eye. The color palette for the entire ship just works for me. Some folks say it’s just Viking and IKEA getting together to design a ship. Well, if that is the case, that’s fine with me. But it is a really high-end IKEA. Just think of Scandinavian design. Clean, muted, nothing jarring. No flashy colors. No Las Vegas at all! See photos of what I mean in a previous post by clicking here.
  3. The quiet. Even though there is music in some venues sometimes (I wished the pianist in the Living Room had played a little softer the night we had drinks there), it is a very quiet ship. There is always someplace I can go and sit in silence to write, process photos, read or have a conversation. But the one place that breaks this for me is The Restaurant (a Viking ship’s main dining room), which I find to be VERY loud. Other than that, I love the quiet.
  4. The crew. I mentioned in a previous post. They are the best overall crew we have ever sailed with.
  5. Itinerary. This was a good one. Some of my closest friends would have disliked the temperatures. They prefer warmer weather. We like the cold. That’s why we live in Washington State. It’s cold but not too cold, wet but not too wet (Seattle averages 37 inches of rain a year/Bergen 88 inches of rain a year), and perfect for us. I always prefer cold over hot. You can always put on another sweater or jacket if you get too cold, but once you are naked, you can’t get any cooler without AC ?. I would have picked Norway as the most beautiful place on earth if we hadn’t been to Scotland before the cruise. We loved every port we stopped in (I will forgive Bergen for one teen’s actions), and we have already told others they must do this cruise. Kathleen said to remind you that the weather changes by the minute. We didn’t get snow, but our full day in Bergen is a great example. We went up the funicular in beautiful sunshine, barely a cloud in the sky. An hour after coming down, the rain was also coming down…horizontally. A deluge we had to take shelter from for an hour (with lunch), and then it was back to sunshine.
  6. Embarkation and disembarkation. Smoothest ever! Less than 20 minutes from car to ship on the front end and 10 minutes from ship to car on the back end. It doesn’t get much better than that unless it’s during a pandemic and no one else is getting on or off. OK, river cruises are easier but I am talking ocean here.
  7. Cruise Director Andre Gaffney and his activity staff. He does outstanding port talks—lots of info. And for us, the best part was that his port talks were televised live every afternoon (before a port day), so we could have a cocktail from our included mini-bar while we watched the port talk from our stateroom before dinner. It became our routine. His announcements during the cruise were also excellent. His assistant (I am so sorry that I can’t remember her name) runs the best trivia game at sea. She is excited, in control and asks questions that are just hard enough to challenge you but not too hard so that she stumps everyone. I just wish the trivia had been at a different time. They were either at noon or 8:00 p.m. At noon, I have lunch, and at 8:00 p.m. I am in bed.
  8. Entertainment was perfect for us ?. I put the emoji on there because, for us, on a Viking ship (river or ocean), the entertainment means watching Downton Abbey on our stateroom television. We just don’t do shows anymore. I guess we are old or just jaded—they all seem the same. So after dinner, it was back to the stateroom where I would process photos, Kathleen would read, and we would watch an episode of Downton. Of course, we have already seen the entire series (and both movies) when they first came out, but it’s nice to catch up with old characters we love again. And we only watch it on Viking ships. So, on our 3-week Med cruise in the fall of 2022, we watched seasons one, two and a little of season three. On our December 2023 Christmas Market River cruise, we watched the rest of season three and a little of season four. We finished four, five and the first three episodes of season six on this cruise. Guess what we will watch on our October 2025 Douro River cruise ??
  9. Shore excursions. Every single Viking-included excursion (even the one on Orkney) was better than any of the included excursions on our 2022 Viking Sky Mediterranean cruise. My favorites were our guides in Greenwich, Tromsø and Geiranger. We did feel a little short-changed in Lerwick when our excursion was cut from 2.5 to 1 hour. Not cool. But the rest of them were great. And all the “luxury motor coaches” were pretty nice.

Let’s talk about the food

We ate in the following spaces (in order of the number of times we ate there), and this is what we thought of them:

(Before we start, a word about the Steve Test. My brother Steve created this test about six cruises ago. It works like this: If you eat in a restaurant while traveling, and that restaurant is near you once you get home, would you go there again?) 

  1. The Restaurant/Main Dining Room. We ate there once. For lunch. On a sea day. When the sea was at its worst, rocking and rolling. We figured we should go there then because no one else would be there and because it was close to the water and much less rocking than the buffet on deck seven. We were right about the rocking and the emptiness. We were four of about 30 people there. Still, it was a little louder than the buffet, and the food was basically meh. I had a dry Rueben sandwich that was not on rye bread, had little Russian dressing and came with almost cold fries. The service could have been more consistent as well. See why we don’t eat there? That’s a fail on the Steve test.
  2. The Chef’s Table. This is one of the ship’s specialty restaurants. It features a fixed menu. They rotate three menus throughout the cruise. You can see the menu on the Viking app or on your television and know what menus are coming up. The only problem is that you can’t see them three months before the cruise when making reservations. We had reservations for two nights. When we got on board and looked at the three menus that would rotate through our cruise, we canceled our first reservation. Three people in our party of six could not (allergies) or would not (preference) eat anything in the first three courses. We did keep our second reservation, and when we got there, the menu did not match what was on the app or our TV. Thankfully, the menu had turned to a Mexican meal, and everyone could and would eat all of it except the first course. It was very good and restored my faith in The Chef’s Table. The food was excellent. The molé sauce was a LOT better on Oceania Vista but the rest was great. That’s a pass on the Steve test, but only for this menu.
  3. Manfredis. This is Viking’s Italian specialty restaurant. We ate here twice on our previous 21-night Viking Ocean cruise, and once Kathleen got food poisoning, and the other time was just meh. This time, there was no food poisoning, but it was still meh—just not great Italian food. Maybe I say that because I am half Italian, love to cook Italian food and love a great Italian restaurant. We went to one in Glasgow (Banca di Roma), and on a scale of 1-10, the one in Glasgow was a nine, and Manfredis is barely a three. This does NOT pass the Steve test—FAIL! Come on, Viking, you can do better.
  4. Mamsens. This is a small deli-type place just inside the door of The Explorer’s Lounge. They serve amazing Norwegian waffles with fruit, sour cream and brown cheese for breakfast, which I love. You can also get substantial pastries there. Actual Norwegian bakery goods. YUM! At lunch, they have great open-face sandwiches that I also like a lot. When we were on Viking Sky, there were usually three choices: two meats and one seafood. On Venus, there were just two choices (one less meat), so we ate there less as Kathleen couldn’t eat the seafood choice. But they still pass the Steve test with flying colors. I could eat breakfast there every day.
  5. The Pool Grille. I love this place. It’s out by the pool with delicious hamburgers, hotdogs, a few salads, fries and onion rings. It’s in the open air when the weather is good (it has a roof that opens and closes). I ate a few lunches there and loved the food. It’s a big fat PASS on the Steve test. I would eat here once a week if it were near our house.
  6. The World Cafe/Buffet. As you know, if you have followed along, we ate here for most dinners, about half of our lunches and breakfasts. We thought the food was of high quality and well cooked, and the hot was usually hot, and the cold was usually cold.One of the nicest surprises was the new Asian counter, where you could get some excellent Asian food prepared in front of your eyes. And the two guys that worked that counter were great! What we didn’t like (compared to our Viking Sky cruise in 2022) was that there seemed to be less selection. Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying there weren’t plenty of choices every day. It was always a completely full buffet. But the same food was often repeated over and over again. For instance, on the first night, Steve and I were thrilled to find a massive seafood display with ceviches, seafood salads, salmon, marinated octopus, and so much more. There was also an outstanding selection of sushi on the opposite side from the fish…but it was exactly the same EVERY NIGHT! I mean, in 14 days, how often can you eat the same fish dishes or the same sushi? At lunch, that seafood spot was the salad bar. But at night, that went away. That means if you just wanted a salad for dinner, you better like seafood because that’s all there was.There was too much red meat. I mean a lot of red meat. Beef, venison, veal, lamb…all stuff we love, but too much of it. Kathleen said, “It was like your choices were red meat or seafood. If you want to eat vegetarian for a night, good luck.” There were always steamed veggies but very few vegetarian entrées. We loved the red meat dishes but we are going to have to go full vegan for a few weeks to get over this cruise.Lastly, pizza on Venus was the WORST I HAVE EVER HAD on land or sea. I am a pizza lover. I make the best pizza I know of. Of course, I am a little bit prejudiced. During the entire cruise, they only had three kinds: Margherita, cheese, and one night, they even threw some mushrooms on one. It was just awful.

Overall, the food was as good as any cruise we have ever been on, except last year’s cruise on Oceania Vista. It just needs a little bit of improvement. We ate too much. Here are some food pictures to make you hungry.

What we DID NOT love

Nothing. I can’t find a single thing I really disliked. It was just as we expected, except that the ports were so much better than we thought they would be. As you all know, I was unhappy about the speed of the internet, but that wasn’t Viking’s fault. The problem lies with Elon Musk, Starlink and a lack of satellites at the poles. Get with it, Musk.

x

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.  —Seneca

AAAGGGHHHH!!!!

by | Jun 26, 2024 | Uncategorized

This is to let you all know that I am not taking too long in putting up my next post…the internet on this ship is. As I mentioned before, the internet speeds on this ship are atrocious, but I have managed to work through that. Today is the worst. I’m trying to understand why, as we have sailed south, where Starlink is supposed to be better. But as you can see above, it is only getting worse. I have a literal TON of photos to upload for you from incredible Geiranger, but this morning, over two hours, I have been able to upload precisely three photos. And it isn’t the speed that makes me want to pull my hair out; it’s the inconsistency. Yesterday afternoon, when finishing my Bodø post, I was able to upload all the photos in less than five minutes. Today…three in two hours. Yesterday, in the late afternoon, everyone returned from shore and was online. It’s 5:00 a.m. this morning, and no one is up and online, so what’s the problem?

I want to make it perfectly clear that this is NOT Viking’s fault. They are providing me with a solid connection on their end. It’s the connection from their end to the internet that is horrid. And for that, I blame Starlink (Viking’s internet provider) and, ultimately, Elon Musk ?. I like blaming him for everything ?.

So, I will ask your indulgence for a couple of days. I haven’t come this far to quit on you now. Here’s the plan. We arrive in Bergen later this morning (Thursday, June 27). We have all of today to tour Bergen and then we are back on the ship for tonight and will disembark tomorrow.

At that point, Kathleen and I will move to the Moxy Hotel in Bergen tomorrow night (Friday, June 28). Then, I should have great WiFi as I will be connected to an actual hard line connection and not Starlink’s ssssllllooooowwww satellite. So, I should be able to upload my Geiranger post, followed by Bergen. The next day (Saturday, June 29), we fly to London from Bergen. We are spending the night at London Heathrow and flying home around noon the next day (Sunday, June 30). Sometime before we fly home, I hope to get Bergen and disembarkation online. Then. my goal is to write one final wrap-up to the cruise during our nine-hour flight back to Seattle and post it on Sunday night or Monday morning, and that should be it.

So please stick with me and know that I want to write and post, but all I can do is text-only stuff. Nothing else will upload. Have a great day. Time for us to go enjoy Bergen and our last full day onboard the wonderful Viking Venus.

The Sea dominates a Sea Day…and random thoughts

by | Jun 21, 2024 | Uncategorized

[videopress 1VQTwaBs]

Yesterday was a sea day, and the sea took over. Just after we left Lerwick, the weather and the seas changed. The winds picked up (the captain announced 50-60 knot winds yesterday at noon), and the seas were fairly high. The video above is a good example of what we were into. Today (which is also a sea day) is much calmer. The worst part for me is that on sea days, I like to walk on the Promenade Deck (Deck 2). Due to the extreme seas yesterday, the outside of that deck was closed off. It is back open today, and I truly enjoyed a six-mile walk this morning.

You knew it was bad because beautiful leather barf bag holders were placed all around the ship. We had someone lose it just down the hall from our stateroom, and the crew got that carpet cleaned up quickly. It also made for both a very quiet breakfast and lunch for us. The World Cafe (buffet) was practically empty for breakfast, and when we went back for lunch, they kept having dishes fall over and glasses breaking, so we went down and had lunch in the dining room. Pretty empty there as well. The captain was right when he predicted things would get better around midnight. We weren’t up then, but when I woke up around that time because it had become too quiet, I looked out the window, and the seas were much calmer. Thankfully, they still are.

Random Thoughts

Since I have few photos to show you (other than the video above), I wanted to comment on a few things around the ship.

Let’s start with the interior of the ship itself. I think Viking truly has the most beautifully decorated ships at sea. At least they appeal to my taste in design much more than any other line I have ever cruised on—the furnishings, carpets, and floors in every venue work for me.

And if I am looking for a place to sit…I also think that after 35-plus cruises, there are more awesome places to sit and look out at the ocean on a Viking ship than on any other ship we have sailed on. Right now, I am sitting in my favorite place on the ship, the upstairs gallery of the Explorer’s Lounge. On deck eight forward, long-time cruisers will know it as the Crow’s Nest or Sky Lounge on other lines. It has numerous couches and chairs, a fantastic view and tons of books and artifacts. Right now (because it is a sea day), it is a little louder than normal, but most of the time, it is the quietest place on the ship. We sailed on Oceania’s Vista last fall, and my biggest complaint was that there was no place below the top two decks where I could sit and look out at the sea unless I were on my verandah.

There is no deck on Viking ships with a public area where you can’t look out at the sea in every direction. On Deck 7, starting in the Explorer Lounge at the bow and walking aft to the stern, you can see almost every step of the way. And all along that walk, there are a lot of places to sit. Whoever designed these ships did it right. The same is true for Deck 2. You can see outside from The Restaurant aft until you reach the Star Theater in the bow. And there is seating everywhere if you are looking for a quiet place to sit and read…or post on a blog.

I have only taken a few photos around the ship (other than in our stateroom), but I will try to do a few more so I can show you what I mean. Here are some quick shots I took just now to give you an idea. Feel free to look at them on your phone; I took them with mine.

I love the Promenade Deck, but I wish it went one way. This is a tiny complaint, and I will write it up as a suggestion to Viking. When we are at home, I walk a lot—more than 120 miles every month. In good weather, I do that outside. In lousy weather (we have a lot of that in the Seattle area), I walk indoors on the track above our pool at Trilogy (the 55+ community where we live).

On that track, we have a wonderful sign that says, “Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, walk clockwise. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, walk counter-clockwise.” Viking needs that on the Promenade Deck. When I go out to walk, I try to wait to see which way the majority of people are going and go with the flow. But since I will walk for more than an hour, eventually, people will start walking in the other direction, and pretty soon, there will be more coming towards me than going away from me. This wouldn’t be a problem on the track at Trilogy, but here on the ship, it is a HUGE problem. There are spaces on that deck where you can’t pass anyone. One of you (like on a Scottish country road) has to pull over and stop walking. (see the hallway above. It’s about as wide as I am.) If I am behind someone in these tight places, it’s easy to slow down until I can pass them. But when I am in a tight, metal tunnel at the bow of the ship, and I come around the corner, and there is someone coming full tilt directly at me, it’s tough to find a way to get around them or move over. Near collisions are rampant, and I have to believe there are a few that actually happen. All this could be solved with a sign like we have at Trilogy. Then everyone would walk one way, and there would never be a problem in those tight spaces. No surprises—that’s the ticket.

The crew on this ship is awesome…and very happy. We have had great crew members over the years who we have loved and sometimes sailed with numerous times and developed relationships with. But I have never seen an overall crew as happy in their work as this one. With the exception of one or two that we have run into, every single one is always smiling. And not just at us. One of my favorite things this week is to see the people in the World Cafe (buffet) interacting with one another. They are constantly smiling and laughing while they do their excellent job.

The new Asian station. At least new to us. It was not on Viking Sky.

And they are fun to talk to. There is a new station at the back of the buffet that does Asian food. Every time I would come by and look at what they had, the assistant chef who works there would entice me to try it. Finally, I did, and it was awesome, but now, if he sees me walking past, he will call me out and ask why I am not eating from this station today ?. When I do, he always encourages me to try new things that I am not sure of. When I do, he always checks later to see if I liked it. That’s amazing service. That’s above and beyond.

The attitude of this crew tells me two things. They have a great boss at the top who sets the tone, and he gives his supervisors leeway in hiring and they are hiring the right people. I have yet to meet the Hotel Manager here on Venus, but I know he is the one who lets his managers in the kitchens, the dining rooms and housekeeping set the tone. And those supervisors seem to have the same attitude as their workers.

I have seen head servers, managers and the like helping to set up tables, serve food or bus dishes that I have never seen on other ships. Yesterday afternoon, they were doing a salmon lunch set up on the aft deck, and the executive chef of the entire ship was there helping to set up. When one of the assistant cooks suggested a change to the setup, he stood back and said, “You’re right. That would be better. Let’s change it.” And he jumped right in to help her change it. And while they were changing it, he thanked her for the idea. (Then he stopped to talk to us—nice guy.) That’s what real management is all about—giving the crew ownership and listening. Whoever is running this part of the ship is doing it right.

Tomorrow, we are back in port again, and it’s a long excursion, so I am not sure if I will have a report for you. It’s the first of three consecutive port days starting with Honningsvåg, Norway.

Sweet it is, when on the high seas the winds are lashing the waters, to gaze from the land on another’s struggles.  —Lucretius

Unusual Doings in Lerwick

by | Jun 20, 2024 | Uncategorized

Yesterday was a strange day, cruise-wise. We visited the town of Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. Let me describe what happened. About three days ago (when we were in Edinburgh), we received a notification that our 2.5-hour shore excursion to tour the island and stop to see Shetland ponies had been cut to one hour due to a shortage of buses in Lerwick. It became a one-hour panoramic tour on a “luxury motor coach.”

We were okay with that because, having been to Lerwick before, we knew that it was an easy town to walk around in, and if they were still taking us to the Shetland ponies, we would be happy. We had done a private tour the last time we were here and saw most of the island. Later, we heard from some crew that the reason there were so few buses was that there would be four ships in. That’s a lot of ships for tiny Lerwick.

Then, early yesterday morning (around 7:30), there was a general announcement that they not only made in the ship’s public areas but into staterooms as well. You know that is highly unusual if you are a regular Viking cruiser. It is usually only used for emergency announcements. The cruise director (a very fine fellow) came on and told us that our schedule had changed and that Venus was now docked at the pier but would not be moored there all day. We would only be there until noon. After that, we would move to the center of the harbor and use tenders to return to the ship. Until then, the morning shore excursions would leave from the pier, and there would be a shuttle bus that would go into the town until 11:00 a.m. After that, if you were in town, you would have to wait until 1:00 p.m. to take a tender back to the ship.

We thought, “WOW! There must be another ship coming to take our place. They must be really important to be able to kick us off the dock. And sure enough, when we went up for breakfast and could see the other side of the harbor, there was a ship anchored there, tendering passengers into the center of the town. But imagine our surprise when we discovered the other ship was the Viking Sky (thus, the photo above). The problems with coaches, piers, and docks were caused by Viking scheduling two of their ships here on the same day. And yes, there were two other ships in the harbor, both docked, but they were small Ponant ships (a French cruise line) with less than 200 passengers, so they docked at piers that neither Viking ship could fit on.

It was just weird. It became even stranger when, later in the day, our ship (Viking Venus) moved off the pier, and Viking Sky didn’t move; they just kept on tendering. When we left yesterday afternoon, there was no one on the pier and never had been. It was just strange.

What about our day? It was pretty good. The weather cooperated (not bright and sunny, but no rain), the tour was nice, if short, and our guide was a good one. We were toured through the town and then up into the hills, where we stopped by Carol’s Ponies, a Shetland pony ranch where we could get off and take photos of them. Which, of course, I did. I don’t like to put people (other than those I know) into my photos, so when we go someplace like this where there are about 25 yards of fence for four busloads of people to stand next to, it can be very tough to take photos of just what I want to take pictures of…like ponies…or stones…or pretty much anything. But I did my best. Here are the results. I think the only person I got in the photos was my lovely bride Kathleen. 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…

After the ponies, we headed back to the ship (remember, the excursion had been shortened to an hour). When back, Kathleen headed up to our stateroom and Steve and Jamie went off to town on the shuttle bus. I walked Kathleen back to our room to get my heavier sweatshirt because the wind was blowing so hard that my windbreaker was not breaking. Then I went back down to the shuttle and took the last one into downtown Lerwick.

As I mentioned, we had been there before, and it is a photogenic town. Lots of color and history to shoot. Plus, one of our favorite British TV shows is Shetland, which is…you’ll never guess…shot here in Shetland. In fact we drove by the show setting up shots for next season. And I love to take photos of places we have seen in TV and movies. Remember, we just did a Ted Lasso tour. I probably walked around Lerwick for an hour or so before I got in line for the first tender back on the ship to meet everyone for lunch. In the meantime, Venus had moved around, Sky and the two Ponant ships were right where we had left them, and we were back on board for an early sail-away. We were only staying until 3:00 p.m. because we now need the full  57 hours of sailing time to get to our next port…Honningsvåg, Norway.

Here are my photos from my walk around the town. You know the drill… (is that better?)

Lastly, on the way out of port at 3:00 p.m. I shot a few last shots as a farewell. We were thrilled to come back here but doubt it could happen again. In case you missed it, there were two blog posts today. That’s because it’s a sea day…in the North Sea. More about that tomorrow, but suffice it to say we are having some ROUGH seas. No fun for many people (not us; Kathleen has her SeaBand, and I never get seasick—this is not the case for the majority of the ship—barf bags are everywhere.)

Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.  —Lou Reed

 

Orkney in the Rain…and the Wind…and the Fog and our Stateroom

by | Jun 19, 2024 | Uncategorized

Yesterday, we were in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands. To find us on a map, just look directly north of the mainland of Scotland, and there it is. So far, this was the worst weather on the trip. It wasn’t that it was pouring rain all day; it came and went periodically, just like we had experienced in the rest of Scotland. It was just that the skies never cleared. It was flat and ugly all day long.

This is our guide Derrick. Nice man but spoke quietly with a deep Scottish brogue. It took a lot of work to get his photo. I shot five photos of him and never smiled or looked up.

We did the Viking “included” shore excursion, which was a “panoramic” tour of the island. And you all know by now, this means a ride on a “luxury motor coach.” YEAH! At least today, we didn’t need the air at the back of the bus because the temps were low, and when we got out to take photos, we were happy to get back on to get warm. The tour around the island (done by our Kirkwall guide, Derrick-at right) was very nice, but it basically featured two stops. Both of these were to look at stones sticking out of the ground. We were told that the ancient runes were older than Stonehenge. Well, they may have been older, but not anywhere near as big or as awe-inspiring. When we visited Stonehenge a few years ago, I was amazed at how any men could have lifted those stones into position. Here on the Orkney Island, the stones were small enough for a couple of guys to have placed them.

There were two sets of them, and I got off the bus to take photos of the first ones we stopped at but then decided to skip the second because, by that time, it was really raining, they were much further from the bus, and they were out in what looked to be a very muddy field. Besides, we could see them from the bus, and they looked pretty much the same as the first group. And with the sky being totally gray, it was not a great photo-taking day. I will prove it to you and show you all my shots from that morning, and you tell me what you think. And please feel free to take a look at these on your phone. They just aren’t that good, proving my point that photography is all about light.

Orkney was pretty much a bust for me. Not their fault. The weather made the photography yucky, and the ship moored in an industrial port, which forced a shuttle ride into town. After our tour, we were back on board so I could try and make something out of the photos. Our sail-out was nice, though, and it got a little sunny, so I was lucky enough to get a few photos as we left from the aft deck of the World Cafe. 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…

That about covers Kirkwall and Orkney Island. Since it was a short one, I want to take a couple of minutes to show you where Kathleen and I are living right now—our stateroom on Venus. In our cruising life (more than 35), we have had many different staterooms on many different ships. We consider the three best to be the verandah stateroom we had on Celebrity’s Flora yacht in the Galapagos, the Neptune Suite we got upgraded into on Holland America’s Nieuw Statendam and this Penthouse Verandah stateroom on Viking Ocean. This stateroom is larger than your standard verandah stateroom, and we love the extra room.

When we were in the Med on Viking Sky, we had the same type of stateroom but on the other side of the ship. Then we had 5029, and this time, 5030. The on-board cruise specialist who sold us our cruise told us that this side had better views for this particular cruise. I’m not sure if that is true, but since it is the same stateroom, we are happy with it. Here are the pictures that I took to send to www.cruisedeckplans.com. If you are not familiar with that website, they have deck plans for every ocean-going cruise ship, along with reader-submitted photos of the interiors of staterooms. Check them out before you pick your stateroom.

And that about covers it. If you have questions about the stateroom, please let me know. I can tell you that the difference in price between this and a regular verandah is about $500 for this cruise, and as far as we are concerned, it is worth every penny. Kathleen loves the space, the storage and the ability to have an “included” cocktail every night before dinner. I love that you get to reserve specialty dining and shore excursions about two weeks before about two-thirds of the rest of the passengers.

Tomorrow is a sea day. We are in Lerwick in the Shetland Islands today, and I have some great photos. I will be back with those tomorrow.

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.  —Anthony J. D’Angelo