NYPorter

It was a Friday night and we usually have seafood or takeout. But I was looking for something different that I could make at home. Isolation cooking means you might not have everything you need on hand, so it was time to improvise!

Our son’s girlfriend made a skillet baked tortellini for us a few weeks ago and it was great! There isn’t an iron skillet where we are in lockdown, so we transferred everything to a 2 1/2 quart casserole dish prior to the baking step. I didn’t have all of the required ingredients, so I adapted.

Instead of 28oz of crushed tomatoes I used two 14.5 oz cans of chopped tomatoes (one was regular petite cut, the other was fire roasted) and added the full can of tomato paste. I didn’t have fresh basil or black olives, so I used dried basil, left out olives. I also omitted the mushrooms since I didn’t have any. As it was cooking my thought was, hmmmm, this is just like making lasagna sauce.

Both Tim and I had seconds… and we have leftovers! Surprisingly easy and very delicious! Enjoy!

The complete recipe is here: Baked Pizza Tortellini

Last night Julie and I headed down to the dock on Canandaigua Lake to watch the moon rise across the water. It was beautiful. The sky was absolutely clear and there was almost no wind. For those that know us, you might normally wonder what the heck we’re doing in New York at this time of the year.

If you take a look back on our blog for the last few years, you’d see that we retired at the beginning of 2018 and hit the road. Before we headed out, we rented out our home after putting our stuff into storage. That left us “homeless” and “jobless”. Of course it also allowed us to get out and travel, which was the plan.

For two years we’ve spent time living in other countries or just traveling. We also discovered cruising and caught the bug… the cruising bug. Unfortunately, the corona-virus has brought our travels to a crashing halt.

Detour

Just like everyone, our life and our plans took a detour this year. Julie and I feel fortunate that we have family to lean on, and that’s what brought us to the New York Finger Lakes. Julie’s brother and sister-in-law (Scott and Joanne) have a house on the lake. Spending a lot of time watching their grandkids in Western NY doesn’t leave them time to enjoy the lake as much as they’d like right now. That provided an opportunity for us to safely isolate ourselves.

Absent the pandemic, our next three months would have seen us in Tampa, then on a trans-Atlantic cruise. A month in Italy would have been sandwiched between Spain, Greece and Germany. Today, if someone suggested such itinerary to me I’d be wondering if they had a death-wish for me! Over two weeks on a cruise ship?! Probably not.

Finger Lakes

The Finger Lakes are one of the awesome natural region of Upstate New York. We’ve had “Grandma/Grandpa Camp” here with our grandkids for several summers. Swimming, boating, hiking in the many local and state parks… the kids enjoy it as much as we do. Our son and his girlfriend live in a suburb of Rochester and the grandkids love spending time with “Uncle Shawn” and Suzy as well.

Well, the summer Canandaigua and early-April are two different dogs. Last night’s awesome display put on by the pink moon rising over the lake contrasted sharply with today’s overcast, gray skies and a late morning snow flurry. Julie and I have gotten soft spending our winters in warmer climes. A week after returning from Cape Coral, I thought our son’s thermometer was broken one morning when it read 28 rather than 82.

This lock-down can’t end too soon for us. Between the cabin fever and the cold, gray skies, we’re already set to head south.

Planning a European Vacation

Most people will tell you that the first thing you need to do is set your budget. I disagree. The first thing is to figure out how much time you have and the second is to figure out what you ‘hope to see’. THEN you set a budget.

It’s All About Time

For those making their first trip to Europe, time is usually the most constrained commodity. When my wife and I were working, vacation planning was all about optimizing weekends and holidays to make the most of our limited time. We deferred the longer vacations to when we were retired and had more time.

Let’s say that you have two weeks. That’s from when you get off work on Friday (Day 0), then that first week (Day 1-7), the next week (Day 8-14) and the following weekend (Day 15-16). Then you get to go back to work on Day 17 to recover from your vacation. At least that was how we used to do it. Of those 16 days, at least two are travel days getting to and from the old world. That brings us to the topic of transportation.

Flight Decisions

Our recommendation is travel to Europe on an overnight flight and return on a daytime flight. The last time we flew to Europe we left JFK Airport on a 10 PM flight, arriving in Paris around noon. We were relaxed and got into our hotel with ease mid-afternoon. After unpacking, we went to a local restaurant. Later, after a relaxed evening, we went to sleep early and hit the ground running the following morning.

On the other hand when I was still working, I once had a 9 AM flight out of Newark to London that had me arriving at my hotel that evening. It was close to 11 PM when I finally got to my hotel. I had a room service dinner and then hit the sack with a full stomach. For me, that wasn’t the best option, but it was what I had.

Comparing the two options, I felt more refreshed after the overnight flight. On the other hand, I know that some people want to maximize time. To them, that half day gained using the morning flight might be worth more than the discomfort that first day brings. Obviously, that’s something you need to decide for yourself.

Vacation Modes

Over the years we’ve done various different kinds of vacations in Europe. On one end of the spectrum, we planned and executed everything on our own, focused on keeping costs low. At the other end of the spectrum we were part of a 12 day planned tour where everything was laid out and organized for us. There is a mix of costs and benefits to each, and a variety of points in between.

Doing it yourself

– This is tough. You’ve got to figure out which countries and cities to visit, and what to see and do while you’re there. The Internet definitely has plenty of resources to help. These resources include travel sites (Travelocity, Expedia, etc.), blogs, airline sites and more. Next come decisions around where to stay. Trip Advisor is a great site for looking at reviews and getting an idea around cost.

Budget planning – Good hotels run $130-$200 per night, and you get what you pay for. Nicer accommodations obviously cost more. Rental car including insurance from a mainstream vendor should run you about $250/wk (compact with manual transmission) and gas about $350/wk. That puts a base weekly cost around $1650 for one week in Greece or Spain. More in mainstream Europe (England, Germany, France, Netherlands, etc.) where car rentals can be significantly more expensive.
Note – Unlike in the US, your personal car insurance generally does NOT cover your rental car. So you’ll need to opt for personal injury and damage coverage.

A few other points. There are things that you’ll want to do that involve local tours in English. Assuming you spend an average of $75 a day (per person) on these tours, that pushes a one week cost to about $2700. Obviously you have food and other costs, but this is a good number for comparison with an organized tour. The last consideration is language. We did quite well in Spain with our very poor Spanish. Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovenia were beyond anything we could master. In our travels, The Netherlands, Spain and Germany seem to have the most English speakers. Eastern Europe is friendly, but has fewer English speakers.

✔Pros – You can control costs and management of your schedule is completely in your hands.
✔Cons – First, you can spend a great deal of time planning. You may also limited by your knowledge of the areas you’re planning on visiting. Booking hotels and transportation may be challenging. You can get tripped up on travel and transfers if you’re a less experienced traveler. Language barriers.

Organized Tour

This can be easy. You look at one or more tour company, review their tours and pick one. You can work with the tour company directly, or work through a travel agent. We’ve used Liberty Travel for years and like that we can get catalogs from multiple tour operators to browse through. Our travel adviser, Susan, can normally answer our questions or she reaches out to the tour operator and quickly gets the answers for us. She is absolutely amazing.

The tours we’ve taken generally (but not always) have the same starting and ending location, making flight decisions easier. Regardless, your travel adviser can help with flight recommendations. You can often get discounted flights through the tour operator as well. Globus is by far our preferred tour operator. They’re not the cheapest, nor are the the most expensive, and they’ve never disappointed us.

What we like

What we like about this option is that there is a predetermined plan, hotels and transportation coordinated, and professional guides provide insight and color during the trip. Most tours also have free time and optional excursions built in, increasing flexibility. Globus picks nice hotels and we’ve found that the guides will provide great recommendations on what to see and do during your free time. They can also help with dinner recommendations, which is great as you get to experience a new location with confidence.

Costs

Costs advantages are a bit difficult to calculate. Using the $2700 weekly cost for Greece or Spain, going it on your own looks very attractive compared to an eight day group tour in Greece that will run about $3800 for a couple. However, the comparison is like comparing apples to oranges. Unless you’ve visited a country before, and are comfortable with where to go and what to see, we strongly believe that an organized tour is the best option. That experience is very much akin to visiting a city and first taking the hop-on/hop-off bus. After a day on the bus, you know what you really want to see. An overview tour of Spain really prepares you for revisiting… or not. (In Coming to America I write about similar value in taking local excursions off a cruise ship)

Benefits

Organized tours generally provide most breakfast and some other meals, which is great. The real value comes from the organization and local knowledge you get from the tour director and guides. You’re visiting the most relevant sites with someone that knows what to see and when to visit. You get to enjoy the experience without getting stressed over hotels, meals, transportation and translations. You can focus, and enjoy the experience.
✔Pros – Most efficient use of your time both in planning and on the trip. Removes the burden of coordinating a myriad of travel options including the hotels and transportation. Most breakfast and some other meals are normally included in an organized tour. Low stress.

✔Cons – More costly. Your ability to deviate outside the planned itinerary is somewhat limited.

Hybrid Plan

This is our favorite option. You could spend 4-6 days in one area (Barcelona or Madrid for example) at the start of your trip while relaxing and getting acclimated to the time change. Take the Hop-on Hop-off bus to get an overview of the city. Then spend your time exploring whatever you found interesting from the bus tour and from the front desk at the hotel. Staying in a larger city allows you to leverage public transportation like the Metro or local buses. That can be a huge plus – fewer complications and costs from rental cars!

Tour Vendors

We found Julia Travel to be a very reliable provider of excellent half and full day excursions across Spain. There are similar vendors across Europe. Tourist Information centers in the train stations are also a great resource for information on what to see and do locally. We always found English speaking staff available in these centers.

After a few days on your own, you’ll be rested and adjusted to the time change. That’s a great time to join your scheduled organized tour in a different city. Best of all, you get the best of both worlds as the tour gives a great experience, but the personal accomplishment of exploring on your own has its own satisfaction.

Here are some other points to consider when traveling to Europe.

1. Spain, and to a lesser extent, France, have later dinner hours. We spent six weeks in Spain in 2018 and found that most restaurants opened beginning after 6 PM and many opened at 8 PM.
2. Spending a bit more for a hotel in Europe often means you get a continental breakfast included. That can be both a great convenience and time saver.
3. ATM access is not that much of a big deal any longer. You can look at the back of you bank ATM card for the networks supported or just use a major bank ATM. In Spain we used both Caxia and Santander without issues. In Germany (Munich) we used a bank ATM across from the main train station.
4. Organized tours like those provided by Globus, AAA, Kensington, and Tauck generally have agreements so that they can skip to the head of the line when they arrive. That means less time waiting in line and more time soaking up the culture.

Do It Yourself Resources:

Use Viator to preview what local tours are available
Use local Tourist Information Offices- (excellent resource and typically have English language speakers)
Identify quality local travel experts (e.g. Julià Travel in Spain)
Travelocity and Trip Advisor are good Internet based resources

• Julià Travel – Barcelona
• Julià Travel – Montserrat Tour

Hop-on Hop-off bus tours are excellent ways to get to know a new city!

• Viator – Barcelona
• Viator – Sagrada Familia and Montserrat Tour
• Viator – Montserrat Tour

Two great examples of local Tourist Information offices are Valencia and Xativa in Spain. Excellent service, English spoken and plenty to do. You can find more offices like this all over Europe!

Organized Tour Resources:

Liberty Travel – Our preferred travel agency
AAA Travel – Surprising quality
Globus Journeys – Best Mix of quality and affordability

Example Tours:
Globus – Classic Greece
Globus – Eastern Europe

At the beginning of November, Julie, our friend Sharon and I boarded the Brilliance of the Seas in Barcelona, Spain. We were beginning our first TransAtlantic cruise which we called our ‘Coming to America‘.

I really wanted to start this out with ‘It was a dark and stormy night’, but Barcelona was actually warm and sunny as we boarded the ship. Being relative cruise novices, we decided that the first thing we needed to do was explore the ship.

We found Royal Caribbean’s ships more asymmetrically, at least when compared to our only other cruise experience with Holland America. The ‘Centrum’ is a large open space that rises from Deck 4 up to Deck 11. Balconies surround it and it serves as one of the entertainment hubs on the ship.

The ‘Centrum’ elevators are all on the port (left) side of the ship while the lounges, bars, and service counters are on the starboard side. (Plus some nice suites on higher decks). We tried to appear as seasoned veterans as we explored the open areas on Decks 11, 12 and 13, and I think we did a pretty good job. Hey, they let us remain on board!

Cruise Concern #1 – Boredom

As we were planning this trip we got plenty of questions and feedback. While we heard many questions, questions about keeping busy and avoiding boredom were the top issues. “Sixteen days across the ocean, what are you going to do?” or “How are you going to keep busy?”

To be honest, I wondered that a bit myself. However, most of the trip was not at sea. After Barcelona, we stopped in Cartagena, Malaga and Seville, Spain. We also spent a couple of days in Lisbon, Portugal and then in the Azores, our last stop before heading out for America.

The excursions in each city really focus on giving you an overview or focusing on some particular interesting aspect of the city or region. Since you’re only in a port for a day, two at most, there is little opportunity of an immersed experience. Cartagena is a good example.

After spending a day in Cartagena, I knew we wanted to figure out if we might want to spend part of our winters there! The city is clean and attractive. Warm and sunny most of the year, Cartagena and the surrounding area is beautiful, and hosts a significant expat community. We plan more research once we get back home, but we’d love to hear from anyone that’s stayed there.

We didn’t actually get to Seville. We docked in Cadiz, and the excursions we chose took us to the white villages. This was a great stop because it introduced us to the region and gave us a good sense of what it’s like. I’d say the same for Lisbon, Portugal. We spent enough time exploring the city in a Tuk-Tuk to see and enjoy the old-world charm. Both Seville and Lisbon are on our list of places we want to return to and spend more time.

That’s one of the great things we’ve found with taking a cruise. We visit and see interesting places, getting a good enough overview that we can decide if spending more time in the region should be part of our future plans. The Azores is a place that we’re glad to have visited, but other than stopping on a cruise again, I’m not sure we’d make it a destination. The islands are beautiful and offer some interesting natural beauty, but they’re definitely remote. I can’t see us spending a week exploring the islands. But that’s just us. For others, the Azores might be right up their alley!

The last six days were in open ocean, but there was plenty to do on the ship. The entertainment was fantastic. Magicians, comedians, dancers and two outstanding entertainers we’d surprisingly not heard of before. Mary-Jess is a incredibly talented singer from Great Britain best known as the ‘voice of Downton Abbey’ she sings the intro. Another surprise was Jimmy Hopper, a Las Vegas entertainer who can belt out opera as easily as rock and roll.

Our days were full with dance classes (Julie and Sharon, not me I don’t need no stinkin` dancing class), movies, more entertainment, seminars and more. There was no point where we were looking for things to do; it was more about de-conflicting schedules.

To sum things up, Portugal and Seville are on our list to explore in more detail. Cartagena is under investigation. We’re taking another trans-Atlantic cruise ‘back to Europe’ in the spring. Now, on to the second concern.

Cruise Concern #2 Sea Sickness

In conversations before the cruise, typical first questions were about sea sickness. ‘What about sea-sickness?’ ‘Do you get sea-sick?’
Now that we’re back, the first question is normally ‘did you get sea-sick?’ Well, the answer is one of us had one bad evening but there was a sinus infection contributing to the big picture.

Julie and Sharon both wore ‘sea-bands’ and really had no issues. You could feel the motion of the ship, but there was nothing uncomfortable about it. The one ‘bad’ evening was after leaving Lisbon, Portugal. Heading south, the seas were a bit rough when we were west of the Gibraltar Strait. Crossing the Atlantic was pretty comfortable, even when there were some heavier seas.

Maybe we were lucky, or maybe the sea-bands were all that we needed to ward off the effects of the sea. (For clarification, I didn’t rely on sea-bands as that would have been unmanly) If you’ve been on a cruise before, you know about the delicious food. We didn’t have to skimp because of sea-sickness. I sure had my share of prime rib and sirloin as we made our way to America!

This spring we’re heading back to Europe, but this time we’re heading to a place we’ve not visited before – Greece.

We’re going to do our exploring as part of a group tour with Globus. Even better, several of my siblings are going to be joining us. So, let me give you a high level view of our adventure.
[Okay… this is obviously a work in progress…]

Athens

Sightseeing – we’re planning on the Acropolis, the Parthenon, the Erechtheum and the Temple of Athena Nike. My high school english teachers would be impressed that I remember that Socrates held school, or court in Athens (Theseum)… maybe it would be my history teacher…? The first of the modern Olympic Games was held in Athens (not Olympia), and we hope to see that stadium from the 19th century.

Mycenae

One of the major centers of Greek civilization, Mycenae was a military stronghold that dominated much of southern Greece. The period of Greek history from ~1600 BC to ~1100 BC is called Mycenaean in reference to Mycenae. Peaking in 1350 BC, the citadel and lower town had a population of 30,000.
Nearby Corinth derives its name from the ancient city-state of Corinth. Homer’s writings describe this area.

Olympia

An archaeological site on the Peloponnese peninsula, Olympia was a major Panhellenic religious sanctuary of ancient Greece, where the ancient Olympic Games were held. The site was primarily dedicated to Zeus. Having done some research, I’ve found that it’s nowhere near Mount Olympus (Northern Greece), where the Twelve Olympians were believed to live. On the other hand, the Olympic Games were held here every four years from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. In addition to the Olympics area, we’re hoping to visit the temples of Hera and Zeus. (Even though we all know he lived on Mt Olympus…)

Delphi

The archeological excavations of the Oracal of Dephi are obviously located here. (Not to be confused with the cookie baking Oeacal in the Matrix…) In addition to several museums and sites, we’re getting a dance lesson where we’ll learn how to dance the sirtaki just like Zorba the Greek. I’m gonna need a couple of glasses of Ouzo.

Meteora

This is a place of more recent history. Monks and hermits have been finding refuge in this unique rock formation for more than a thousand years. Six Eastern Orthodox monasteries—some dating back to the 14th century—remain in place, still home to a small number of monks and nuns. Meteora is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I’ll be sure to have my camera ready.

Thermopyale

‘The Battle of Thermopylae was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece.‘ Okay, that’s what the Interenet says. I think that’s the ‘Battle of the 300’,… not 100% sure. South of here is Marathon, the site of another famous battle. When we visit this area I’m sure we’ll be talking of the historical events that took place here.

Our Dining Adventure

We were out to dinner this evening on our first day in Paris and we struggled through ordering dinner with our minimal French language skills.  (For clarification, my skills are prehistoric, Julie’s are minimal, and our friend, Sharon’s are… not as sharp as they were at one time…)

We laughed through the ordering process where we desperately tried to convey our desires in broken French. Fortunately the waiter spoke passable English. As we continued to chuckle at our failed attempt to blend into the background, I wrote a quick, humorous post on my Facebook page with a picture of Julie and Sharon.  Using my editorial license, I suggested that we struggled with ordering French fries and the waiter was asking us if we wanted “palm freeze”… pomme frites… (sounds like “palm freetze”).

Caught by Technology

The three of us had a laugh over the post and then went on to enjoy our dinner.  In a short while our waiter, François, came over and asked us if there was a problem with our dinner. He related that his ‘boss’ called and reported an ordering issue with a customer.

It turns out that (1) the Facebook post took our location and (2) linked the restaurant to the post.  With that, the manager (3) got an alert that his restaurant has been tagged on Facebook.  He read the post(4) and determined that something bad had happened (5) (apparently a case of overly dry humor) and (6) called the restaurant.

Wow…

I explained my poor humor to François, which he understood and laughed at…, well, at least he smiled at it.  Based on that, I then edited the post to explain that the meal was really good.

The lesson in all of this is that the Internet moves fast… and be aware of what you post online!

We Recommend!

I should mention that Papy aux Foumeaux has great food, a relaxed feel and friendly staff that speaks English well. Because of this, we send a strong recommendation for this place which is just around the corner from the Niepce Paris Hotel. (Another place we recommend)

Related Links and Posts
Photos – NYPorter.com

We were back on land in Alaska. Now it was time for our adventure after the cruise! But first, let’s get off the ship.

Near the end of August, our Holland America Alaska cruise ship dropped us in Seward, Alaska where we boarded a bus for Denali National Park. I have to say that the level of planning, coordination and communication to get 2000 passengers off a ship and on their way to cities, trains, airports, buses and who knows what else must be daunting.

The ship leveraged published schedules, public meetings, and information packets and luggage tags delivered to our room. Granted, they have years of experience doing this, but to pull that off was impressive for us. In a few short hours, everyone was off the ship and on their way.

Seward is situated on Alaska’s southern coast, on Resurrection Bay, a fjord of the Gulf of Alaska. This puts it approximately 120 miles by road from Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage, and nearly 1,300 miles from the closest point in the contiguous United States at Cape Flattery, Washington.

I looked at a map and thought, okay, Seward to Denali. Well, it doesn’t look that far… Then I looked at the scale on the map. Whoa! Alaska is huge. We had a full day drive in a bus, a comfortable bus, but still, a full day on a bus. On the other hand, it was a beautiful trip.

Leaving the seaport of Seward early in the morning, the sun was still struggling up into the sky and I hadn’t had enough coffee. The first portion of the trip took us through the mountains of the Kenai Peninsula, but I have to admit that I slept for much of that. By the time we’d passed Anchorage, I was awake and we could see the significant mountains ahead of us, pale blue smudges on the horizon. As we continued north towards Denali, the mountains shrunk in distance and grew in size.
Our first rest stop was outside Wasilla, Alaska. I once heard that that from here, on a clear day, you can see Russia from your front porch. I guess it was a bit too cloudy that day…. We did, however, see the Iditarod Museum in Wasilla. There was a dogsled demonstration, albeit on wheels because, well, it was summer and no snow. A walk through the museum dedicated to Alaska’s famous annual dogsled race seemed a requirement so in we went. There’s a lot of memorabilia from past races and lots of color here. This is a spot that that I’d highly recommend you stop and spend 30-45 minutes.

The trip continued north on Hwy 1, through the broad Susitna Valley south of the Alaska Range. Both to the east and west we could see the foothills, but being from the lower 48, we called them mountains. A couple of times we saw Denali peek out from behind the clouds and the ‘foothills’ designation started to make sense. This is one of the reasons we selected the Holland America Alaska cruies, because the land protion takes us right inside of the beautiful State of Alasks.

It was late in the afternoon when we got to Holland America’s comfortable resort, just outside the park. After some exploring and dinner, we settled in there for the night. Tomorrow was a full day and we were reagy to continue the on-shore adventure after the cruise.

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