By the time our adventures in France had ended we were ready for some rest and relaxation! However, that rest and relaxation didn’t start without a little fun to be had first.
Here’s our funny story, thought it’d be fun to share:
We were headed for Guernsey, one of the channel islands between the coast of England and France. To get to the island, we could either fly or take a ferry, we decided to go the economical ferry route, which will later prove to be the wrong move. Our ferry was scheduled to leave at 12:15 in the afternoon and arrive at 13:10. Upon arrival to the ferry dock, we find out that our Condor ferry is delayed an hour, due to engine failure on the left hand side of the ship…this delay eventually turned into 2 hours…finally, we had our passports stamped exiting France and boarded the ferry, cars and all were brought on…Once we found our seats, *DING* “Good afternoon…ladies and gentleman, this is your…captain speaking. I want to welcome you aboard Condor ferries in route to Jersey and Guernsey. Our travel time from St. Malo to Guernsey will be about 4 hours, we’ll try and get you there are quickly as we can. I apologize for the delay as we have been experiencing engine failure on the starboard side of our ferry today, but…hopefully, we should be be okay to go on the 3 engines that are running. Our crew will continue working on the engine and will hopefully get it up and running again. Meanwhile, please make yourselves comfortable, there are food menus in your pocket seats, enjoy the ride, we’ll be departing shortly” Minutes later as people began laughing off some of the frustration, making jokes at Condor’s expense *DING* Hello again…this is your captain speaking, we have a variety of safety features on board this ferry, please take a moment to watch the screens spread throughout and listen carefully, thank you” Finally, after about another hour of sitting, we finally began to pull away from the dock. What seemed like no more than 200 meters away, the ferry began to slow down and upon looking around the room, people began to shake their heads snickering to themselves as this even was quickly becoming comical in every way…we all waited for what we knew was coming next…*DING* “This is your captain speaking…I can’t gain control on the starboard side engine, and we…um…unfortunately just received another advisory alert on our port side engine…so…we’ll…we’ll uh…we’ll just hold our position here until we find out more” I do have to say, we had a nice view of St. Malo while we were in our “hold” position for 15 minutes. *DING* “This is your captain speaking, I have some bad news unfortunately…our other engine has also stopped working, and we are going to, very slowly, make a turn around and have a slow, drawn out ride back to St. Malo port and see if we can fix the problem”. Twenty-Five minutes into the slow sail back to port *DING* “This is your captain speaking, free drinks and biscuits are available at the cafe for the inconvenience”. Ten minutes after that, *DING* “This is your captain speaking, we are going to ask you to disembark the ship upon arrival, vehicle drivers we’ll have you take your cars off, then walk on passengers to follow”. After disembarking, we waited for another hour, only to find out that the trip for the day was cancelled until 7:30am the next morning. Condor was kind enough to provide us with hotel accommodation, which was right in the middle of the old city. Fast forward, in the morning, on the ride over to Guernsey, we learned that the ferry Condor uses was a “bargain ferry”. No one else wanted to purchase this particular ferry because it had issues AND it sails so terribly most people become sea sick. All in all, it was an adventure of a life time trying to get to Guernsey, but alas, we made it in the end!
Lucky enough for us, one of Kaitlyn’s Aunt and Uncles as well as their son and his family live on the island, which means we were able to stay with her cousin, Nigel and his family. All of the houses on Guernsey are extremely old and beautiful, typically remodeled farm homes. Kaitlyn’s Aunt's home is over 150 years old, which was pretty neat to see. We enjoyed the time with family, homemade dinners, sleeping in and a comfortable bed, which is refreshing when traveling as long as we have. One of the fun things we did was walk along the cliff with Laura, Kaitlyn’s cousin. The walk has beautiful scenery and is littered with old German bunkers, which were built in WW2. I really enjoyed climbing one of the bunker towers and getting to explore the inside of a couple of them. Interestingly, Guernsey was occupied by the Germans for almost the entire war, but the British never fought over the islands because they weren't strategically worth the effort, according to Winston Churchill. It was a wonderful two days, much too short, but very relaxing and fun.
After our time in Guernsey we flew to Southampton, England. What is the best part of Southampton? The cruise ships that leave out of the port! Also, if you didn’t know, it is the same port that the Titanic left from on it’s first and last voyage. If you ever find yourself in the area and are in need of an awesome AirBnB host, let us know, we know just the guy :) I have to say, Kaitlyn and I were both very excited to arrive at this point in our journey. Honestly, we always had it in the back of our minds as a motivator to keep going as it was going to be our escape from having to do anything for ourselves, plus it was going to be a fun trip with family! Before we had even left on our trip, we had planned this out, unbeknown to my Mom. We wanted to show up on the ship and give her a great surprise. Although the surprise didn’t go quite the way we had wanted, due to some unforeseen events, it was still fun to see the reaction she gave when we showed up! This brought nearly our whole family together again, but we certainly did miss the ones that were not able to attend due to baby and work responsibilities, so we are hoping for a next time!!
The cruise made 4 stops: Bruges, Belgium, Oslo, Norway, Hamburg, Germany and a port in France. Bruges is similar to Amsterdam in that it is a city built with many canals. The architecture is extremely pretty, mainly medieval style and all the streets are cobblestone, making you feel like you've stepped back in time. We did not do an excursion in Bruges, so most of the day was spent exploring the city by foot. Upon arrival of the city, we walked straight to the Market square, over which the beautiful Belfry Tower casts it’s shadow. Not only is the Belfry Tower a telling piece of history, but you can also see Cloth Hall and the Provincial Palace from their as well. If walking isn’t for you, in the square, you will find horse drawn carriages for hire to take you on a tour of beautiful Bruges. Like I said, we decided to walk so we could take the time to see the city on our own time. Later in the day we returned to the square for a nice lunch at a restaurant called Meridian 3, allowing us to take in the beautiful views of the historic area. During our walk around the city, we went to two different buildings for worship, the Church of Our Lady Bruges and St. Saviour’s Cathedral. Unfortunately due to renovations of the church, we weren’t able to see much, but the cathedral was beautifully built and well maintained. It is always amazing to see churches that were built so long ago, but today are so well preserved showing the unique design to their time period. After, we found ourselves wandering down some cobblestone back streets, passing Chocolateries, local shops, restaurants and more historical sites. By the end, we came out one of the gates of the Provincial Palace, which gave us a look (from the outside) at the Basilica of the Holy Blood. By then, it was time to head back to catch one of the last busses to the cruise ship. Along the way, we made a stop into a chocolate shop in order to pick up some yummy, Belgian sweets!
Oslo, Norway was very unique and my favorite port. Kaitlyn and I didn't have the opportunity to go to any Scandinavian countries while we traveled, so needless to say, we were very excited! The cruise ship docked right on the edge of the city in front of Akershus Fortress, providing spectacular views of the fort and city. Before getting off the ship, we all made sure to have our rain jackets, as we were told it was going to be a dreary day. We began by exploring the fortress on foot and later caught a sightseeing bus to the Viking Ship Museum. The fortress (or castle) was very cool, built in 1290 to protect Oslo, which is the capital of Norway. Since then, the castle has been restored and modernized. After that, we headed to find a bus stopping zone, however, the pursuit ended up being a bit comical…every time we saw a bus, it was moving, not stopped, not picking up tourists, but in route. Thus, this led to more on foot exploring of the city, passing the Royal Palace, until finally we were able to find a stopping location. Inside the Viking museum, there are 3 old ships, well preserved for the most part and numerous viking artifacts. This was by far one of the most interesting and intriguing museums on our trip. It was interesting to see such artifacts and imagine yourself living during their time, especially the Vikings, as they seemed to be fearless at sea. One thing that stood out to me was the craftsmanship of the work during that time. They made sleds and other wooden pieces more ornate than what you would find today, which is really amazing when you think of the tools they had back then. If you ever head to Oslo, I would recommend putting this museum on your “must see list” as it truly is an awesome experience and one you’d only find in Scandinavia. From the museum, we headed back to the city center, where we would find a bite to eat. Along the way, we saw the Noble Peace Center, where the Noble Peace Prize was awarded. The rain began as we neared our destination…and no light rain by any means…so we ducked inside a local restaurant called Egon Karl Johan to grab some grub. However, 10 minutes later we got up and left cause of the crazy prices. Just a hop and a skip down the road though, we found a convenience store with a little deli inside, so we ate hot dogs and calzones till we were stuffed to the brim. Afterwards, we crossed the street to see the Parliament building and the park’s public ice rink, during the winter months of course. From here, the girls headed back to the ship because it was still raining and the guys headed off to the Magic Ice Bar. What cool experience sitting in the 18 degree room was…packed with ice art and sculptures, from ice benches to a complete ice bar, it will forever be a great memory. By the end of that, our fun in Oslo was coming to a close. As we headed back to the ship, I made sure we stopped in a few gift shops for a tourist’s souvenir. Overall, Oslo was a fantastic place and I wish we had time to see more, because there was and is so much more, but that will have to wait till next time. If you are looking for a beautiful city, that is fairly modern with a bunch of activities, Oslo is for you.
At our next stop, Hamburg, Mom and Dad had signed us up for a guided city walk. I honestly wish that through our travels, Kaitlyn and I would have done more guided tours like these. They are full of information and a great way to learn more specifically on the history of the area. Our guide was awesome, he was a young man from Poland who lived in Hamburg and loved studying the history of the area. He taught us so much, that it is honestly hard to recall most of it. We started our tour in front of the town hall, where we were given a pretty extensive history on the building itself and what particular parts of it had meaning. From their, we moved on to St. Peter’s Church, which was built originally built in 1189. However, due to the great fire of 1842, the church would have to be rebuilt and was in 1849. If you look at the bricks of the church, you can see they were burned…the bricks were repurposed after the fire and in an effort to save money and resources, they were used to rebuild the church. On one of the doors of the church, their is an old bronze lion, which is deemed the oldest lion in Hamburg…people believe that it is a source of good fortune, so you can see where many have rubbed the nose and polished the bronze. As we walked throughout the city, we noticed little bronze plaques in the ground called stumbling stones, which were to commemorate the Jews that died during the war agains the germans. Along the journey, we visited many more locations, including the Elbphilharmonie (concert hall), another church under renovation, the warehouse district and we even learned why the poodle became a symbol of a shipping company (love and respect for wife) and more. Our tour guide was GREAT and we all learned a ton! There is so much you miss when you don't do a guided tour, so we were happy we got to experience Hamburg in this particular way. After we departed from our guide, we went to find a tiny little hole in the wall restaurant that we were told was amazing and if we wanted to experience true Hamburg, this Fisch & Co was the place to do so. I do have to say, it was pretty tasty and it was fun to see our family take up every bit of sitting space! After eating, we headed back to the concert hall to see the inside of this newly renovated work of art! The building was pretty neat and was different than anything we had ever seen. We spent about an hour and a half inside, then headed back to the city center where we found a grocery store to buy some german chocolate…from there the girls would end up taking the bus back to the ship and the guys would depart to find some local beer. When in Germany, do as the germans do, right!? We ended up at a brewery called “Brauhaus Joh. Albrecht”, which had a pretty neat atmosphere! It was really nice to go out with my brothers and Dad and have some guy time and I’m sure it was nice for Mom, Halle and Kaitlyn to do the same! Our take away from Hamburg was this: Every city has little historical details that are easy to miss, so if possible, take a free walking tour because you can get a lot for little. Kaitlyn and I thought it was interesting how different Hamburg was from Berlin and Munich. Germany is one of the larger countries in Europe, and you can tell there is a huge amount of diversity across the country!
For our last stop we chose to do a cruise excursion. Kaitlyn and I chose to visit Mont Saint Michelle and the rest of the Nygaard family went to Omaha Beach. Originally, we thought we would be able to make it to Omaha Beach while in France, so we booked the Mont Saint Michelle excursion instead. Unfortunately, we didn't make it while in France, but it was already too late to change our excursion booking. It worked out though, and we enjoyed seeing Mont Saint Michelle. Kaitlyn had visited when she was previously in France during high school and thought I would think it was beautiful. It truly is like no other place! It is crazy to think that it was developed from a big boulder of an island to a castle and current home to about 44 people. The landmark is so recognizable that it is on the UNESCO list of world heritage sites!
Our days on the ship were, of course, wonderful! The entertainment on Royal Caribbean cruise ship is always well done, there are plenty of activities and more than enough food, which is tasty and well presented. While on the ship, we we went to most trivia nights and all the main shows…which included an ice show, a magician (which Kaitlyn was selected to participate in), a comedian, a musician, a few different musicals, a parade and a farewell show! It is amazing to see the many talents of these individuals, and the hard work they put in to make the experience great for so many! Not only that, it was really nice for us to spend time with family, especially after we'd been traveling so long. Let's just say we can't wait for the next one!
With that said, we’ll say Vaarwel, Ha det, Auf Wiedersehen, Au Revoir!
XOXO,
Nicholas and Kaitlyn
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