We went to a fascinating art exhibition called “To Be or Not To Be” the Clam-Gallas Palace in Prague’s Old Town. The first is called Hamlet, and the bust is a study of the contrast and struggle between life and death. The last image in this series has the names of the artists.
Lisbon’s lovely Tagus River beckoned, so of course Bob hopped on a boat! He was a little underwhelmed.
It was a fine tour, nothing spectacular. Bob enjoyed a relaxing couple of hours seeing Lisbon’s main monuments, such as the 25th of April Bridge, Praça do Comércio, and the Tower of Belém, among many others. The one-and-a-half-hour round-trip tour cost 26 euros, or about $28 US. You can also choose to go just one way for less.
We don’t recommend it if your time in Lisbon is short.
It’s Messy Suitcase’s first visit to Portugal, and Bob is traveling alone! He plans to spend a few days in Lisbon courtesy of a layover opportunity through TAP Air Portugal.
Because his flight landed at 530 AM, Bob stowed his luggage in Lisbon through an app called Bounce so he could explore the city before he checked into his Airbnb. He discovered amazing tilework in the cobblestones, plazas, parks, the Marques de Pombal statue, Avenida Libertad, and a lot of truly brilliant architecture.
Of course, he hopped onto the Hop On Hop Off Bus and gave us his impressions from the top of the HOHO. He got on the first one of the day, and found it to be a great way to get oriented to the city despite jetlag.
Just out of 10 days of COVID isolation in a Helsinki hotel room, we missed our first scheduled night in Paris. But we rallied and made it for the last couple of days. We were never so happy to get on a plane! (Masked.)
Not yet restored to normal energy, we couldn’t go inside anywhere in Paris, so we spent a day or two slow-bopping around the glorious city, taking lots of breaks to rest and people-watch. We spent the first morning walking around with our former exchange student (and Spanish daughter) Laia and her cousin Anna. After they left, we had no agenda, which gave us the opportunity to discover new parks and search for the Love Lock that Lisa had attached on a stairway near Pont Neuf in 2018. (Don’t worry, haters, it was NOT on the bridge but on a sanctioned chain, and she did not throw the key in the Seine!) It was long gone, as the Parisians cut them off regularly, but we found a new place to lock our love.
We also walked around on the Isle de la City, saw the roofless Notre Dame Cathedral (covered with scaffolding and dwarfed by a gargantuan crane), strolled along and even dipped our toes in the Seine, sauntered through the courtyard of the Louvre, ate lunch in a sidewalk café, and visited the booksellers’ kiosks along the Left Bank. When our feet got tired, we caught another Seine River cruise and saw the city’s main attraction, the Eiffel Tower! The 1-hour sightseeing tour on Vedettes du Pont Neuf cost 15 euros each, about $17.
We ended the day with a scrumptious dinner in the Latin Quarter.
Enjoy a fairly incomprehensible, but still beautiful, tour of the canals of Copenhagen with us! We saw a lot of fascinating sites from the water, including the Little Mermaid (inspired by the Hans Christan Andersen story), the Royal Library of Copenhagen, the Royal Playhouse, the Copenhagen Opera House, the Naval Base, a castle, the Nicholas Tower, and more. Watch out for the low bridges so you don’t get decapitated!
It was a pleasant way to spend a sunny fall afternoon.
The cost was about $16 apiece for a 1-hour guided tour.
A glorious full moon competed with the sparkling Eiffel Tower and the sounds of Offenbach’s “Can Can” as we enjoyed a romantic dinner cruise up and down the River Seine on a Bateau Mouche. What a breathtaking experience! Do yourself a favor and splurge on this when you visit Paris.
Bateau Mouche literally translates as “fly boat” (so named because the boats were originally manufactured in boatyards situated in the Mouche area of Lyon), and these boats have been plying the river showing visitors the best views of Paris since 1949, carrying 2.5 million passengers a year on a tour of Paris from what the company calls “Paris’s best avenue of them all: the Seine.”
We reserved in advance, a wise decision, chose an evening dinner tour, and selected the Prestige Dinner menu, which cost us 105 euros each and now costs 115 euros, or about $123. This included a four-course meal, a bottle of wine, and a glass of champagne, as well as live entertainment. If we’d chosen the Excellence Menu for 40 euros more apiece, we would have had window seats and fancier food; instead we were in the middle of the interior dining room, with a great view of the piano and violin duet playing standards. The boat was surrounded by windows, though, and a short trip to the outdoor upper level afforded excellent views. Next time, I believe I will splurge on the window seats.
Thinking of popping the question? You can choose the “Get a Yes in Paris – Marriage Proposal” package starting at 340 euros per person, which includes a chauffeur to the boat, a special table for 2 in the bow, offers a variety of quality champagnes to choose from. Who wouldn’t say yes to a proposal with Moet and Chandon on a bateau mouche in Paris?
Several competing companies provide essentially the same tour, including brunch, lunch, and simple sightseeing tours.
Bob spent a day exploring Helsinki, first from aboard a Hop On Hop Off bus, then on foot. He encountered the Helsinki Train Station, Senate Square, HOHO, a traditional spa, the Champs Elysee of Helsinki, the waterfront, a cathedral built by Russia, and more.
He found lunch in a fascinating waterfront market with an amazing array of uniquely Scandinavian offerings (reindeer meat, anyone?), wandered around a port taking in the glorious wooden sailing ships, sauna/swim pools where people dip into the ice-cold water, the Sky Wheel, the Love Locks bridges, and more!
Fresh off COVID quarantine, Lisa tucked Bob (who just tested positive himself) into a hotel bed in Helsinki and went out and about exploring the city on foot. Still congested but no longer contagious, she stayed mostly outdoors and away from people as she walked through the streets, discovering a famous library, striking sculptures, a distinctive church, and the Helsinki Opera House.
Helsinki is made up of lakes, islands and the Baltic Sea. Its outdoor-oriented culture meant she had to watch out for many runners, bike riders, and people on scooters.
Over the course of a day, she strolled across the soccer field at Helsinki Olympic Stadium, then visited the Sibelius Monument, a welded steel tribute to Finnish composer Jean Sibelius resembles organ pipes, which is one of Helsinki’s most well-known tourist attractions. She enjoyed a cinnamon roll at the famous Café Regatta, a traditional red cottage cafe that has brought a part of Finnish countryside to the middle of Helsinki. Its cafe is famous for fresh cinnamon buns, blueberry pie and other delicacies.
And she visited the unusual Rock Church, or Temppeliaukio Church, an Evangelical Lutheran Church built into a rock. An organist was preparing for a concert and the organ music was mesmerizing.
Bob managed to grab a spot on a Royal Line Sightseeing boat tour of Helsinki on the very last day of its tourist season. The sky was clear blue, and the crisp early-fall weather was perfect for spending an hour and a half on the Baltic Sea Harbor of this European capital.
With a sun deck above, a bar/restaurant below, and harbor maps laminated to the tables, the boat cruise was an excellent way to get a feel for the city of Helsinki from the viewpoint of its harbor. Highlights included the fortresses that once guarded Helsinki, a church with a lighthouse on top, the Helsinki Zoo, and the jetty where families come to wash their rugs. Seriously!
The tour cost 26 euros, 22 euros for 65 and up, with larger discounts for children and babies. Audio tours were available in a variety of languages.
Here is how Royal Line describes the tour:
During the 1.5-hour sightseeing cruise, the main historical sights of Helsinki are visited. The large sun decks of sightseeing ships offer the best views of the city from the sea. Behind the memorable cruise, you will hear interesting stories about the history of Finland, wonderful landscapes from the ship’s sun deck and the ships’ professional crew.
The cruises start from the famous Kauppatori, and along the way you will admire, among other things, the beautiful Merisatama, Eira, Kaivopuisto, Kruununhaa beach and the wonderful UNESCO World Heritage Site Suomenlinna in its entirety.
During the cruise, you can enjoy the most amazing island scenery on the outer deck of the ship and the atmosphere of the summer terrace with the best sea view. All ships have a café-bar that serves snacks and refreshing refreshments.
