Beautiful Landing in Anchorage
Absolutely gorgeous approach and landing at Anchorage Airport. The fun is just beginning!
Layover in Seattle
Made it to Seattle. The second half of the quick 1 hour 40 minute flight was very bumpy. We were on an Embraer ERJ 175, cute small plane. We now have a 4 hour layover in Seattle before flight to Anchorage (we used frequent flyer points and saved quite a few points having a longer […]
On our way to Anchorage
All checked in. 1st flight leaves at 7am. Let the adventure begin!
C-19 PCR Testing Tonight for Iditarod Travel
Even though we had 5:10 pm and 5:20 pm appointments for C-19 PCR testing tonight at local CVS drive through for our upcoming trip, we got there 10 minutes early and long line . Mr. Scotty went with us and got a nice walk while we waited..
More 2022 Iditarod Travel Planning
Tuesday night happenings: Knee deep in Alaska travel planning and Iditarod C-19 testing requirements to be volunteer dog handlers for ceremonial start and real race restart the next day. We will proactively PCR test this Thursday evening before flying out early Sunday morning then we have to to do another PCR test in Anchorage 72 […]
Paper Maps
Friday night happenings: I love paper maps, marking up our Alaska Iditarod trip (maybe in a past or future life I was/will be a navigator .LOL). Dan is knee deep in programming so that we all can track him via SV Narnia’s website on his sailing adventure from Panama to Nuku Hiva (French Polynesia) via […]
Prepping to be Iditarod Volunteer Dog Handlers
Prepping for being volunteer dog handlers for the Iditarod ceremonial start in Anchorage next month and real race start in Willow Alaska. In 2018, the last time we volunteered, we had two “non sponsored” mushers that we helped with handing their dogs and not enough leashes. We will be prepared to use these if the […]
Firming up the Marco Polo 2023 Trip Itinerary
44 Day Adventure from Bangkok, Thailand to Athens, Greece As mentioned in <This Post>, we are now planning our 2023 travel. The Itinerary for the 1st few months is firming up with a 44 day trek from Bangkok Thailand to Athens, Greece via the Suez Canal. This will check 8 more countries off of our […]
Covid Research for Iditarod Volunteering
Something to research this weekend, changes to Covid testing for our volunteer Alaska Iditarod dog handler role for ceremonial start and restart… More to follow! Lots of details to sort out!!
2023 Bucket List. Changes to Travel Plans
As many of you know, we have a “Bucket List” goal to travel to as many countries/protectorates as possible. To date we have managed to check 80 countries off the 218 country list. For 2023 we had planned to travel to 11 countries, 8 of them, primarily located in South Africa, East Africa, and the […]
Going to Alaska for Iditarod 50th Anniversary
Our next planned trip will be late February/early March as dog handler volunteers for the Iditarod for the ceremonial start and real Race start followed by 4 days in Bettles in search of Northern Lights. Looks like it is going to “cold” in Fairbanks and in Bettles (yikes)….
Time to Fly Home
They say all good things must come to and end, and this is no exception. It’s time to head back home. We wake early and catch a cab from the hotel to the airport to begin what will be a 20 hour travel day. We have 2 Swiss airline flights today. The 1st one is […]
Negative Test and the Great Market Hall
Today is our last full day in Budapest and we spent the morning awaiting the results of our COVID test. During the last 2 weeks of this trip we have been tested for COVID no less then 13 times (all negative) as we traveled from the US and through Europe. We have also had to […]
2nd Day of Christmas in Budapest
Today, Sunday, is the 2nd day of Christmas in Budapest. In most of Europe this would be St. Stephan’s Day, but in Hungary they celebrate St Stephan’s Day on August 20th, so today is officially the 2nd day of Christmas. We celebrated with a walk along the Danube to the shoes memorial, a visit to […]
A Christmas Evening of Fire and Ice
What better way to unwind from a wonderful Christmas day then with a visit to one of the many thermal baths Budapest is famous for? For this evening we had tickets to one of the most popular baths in the are, the Széchenyi Thermal Bath and Spa. A quick bus ride from the ship, a […]
Christmas Morning in Budapest!
Christmas had arrived! and what better place to spend this day together then in the magical city of Budapest? The ship docked early in the morning on the Pest side of the Danube, just across from Castle Hill on the Buda side of the river. We spent the morning getting oriented on a city bus […]
Christmas Eve Bike Ride in Vienna
What to do in Vienna, Austria, on Christmas Eve? While all of the locals are celebrating Christmas today (as is tradition in Europe), we went went for a nice 18 mile bike ride along the Danube River, the Old Danube Canal and the New Danube Canal. We rode from the ship, following various excellent bike […]
We Have Christmas Markets in Vienna!
We FINALLY have an open Christmas Market! While there were some Cultural Market celebrations open in Prague, this is our first “official” European Christmas Market visit on this trip. In total we visited 3 markets in Vienna, We went first to the large market at Rathausplatz, and then 2 smaller markets, Karlsplatz and Stephansplatz, both […]
Vienna Emerges from Lockdown
We docked in old town Vienna on this very cold Thursday morning. As we had posted before, our ability to do this cruise was in question due to the COVID lockdowns implemented in the various cities along our planned route. Vienna came out of lockdown about 3 days before our planned departure and we are […]
Locks along the Danube
There are 19 major commercial locks along the course the Danube that allow shipping traffic to safely maneuver up and down the natural elevation changes of the river basin. From our start in Regensburg, Germany to our end in Budapest, Hungary we will traverse 16 of them. This trip sees us mostly cruising during the […]