In an effort to not waste a single second of shore time in Norway, thetwinsontour are rapidly becoming sleep deprived. Today, we found ourselves in Ålesund, which is known for its Art Nouveau buildings. Most of the town burnt to the ground in 1904, so it got rebuilt in the architectural style of the time–Art Nouveau–aka Jugendstil. So, really, what that means is that there are cool buildings. thetwinsontour were among the first people off the boat, and quickly headed for all the good sights, without having any idea what the sights were really or where exactly they were…

We wandered around, taking pictures, meandering towards tourist information. It was so early that none of the shops were open yet, which means that thetwinsontour could not be distracted and led astray by the lure of a pretty bauble or $6 magnets.

Armed with our map from tourist information, which was open, we headed off for our goal: 418 steps. Truly, that is what all the directional signs say– 418 steps. What are these 418 steps? Where do they go? I wasn’t really sure, but I knew that is what I wanted to do! 418 stairs doesn’t sound like a lot– until you start to climb them. Then, you get up like 14 stairs, and you’re like, are we there yet? And, if you think how many stairs are in a flight of stairs, like 6 in my house? 14 to not mess up the following calculations? That is like 29 floors?! I carry my laundry up 2 flights of stairs at home, and it wears me out. This is only 27 more floors– easy peasy, lemon squeezy.  Actually, I am not at all confident in these calculations. Sleep deprived. See above.

Regardless of my math or counting skills, it was all irrelevant as random stairs were numbered. And when I say random, I mean random. It just made 0% sense, and of that, I am 100% certain. 47. 82. 108. It took a hundred steps to grab the attention of my mathematical mind. It isn’t odd numbers. 213. Or multiples of 25. 237. Or prime numbers. 268. Some diabolical version of the Pythagorian Therom? 298. Then, they would move to the right side of the stair from the left. 323. JUST NO. 367. 408. Thank goodness by this time we had almost reached the summit. Because really, I think they planned this just to torture me!

Anyways, 418 stairs later, we made it to the summit of Mt. Everest (it certainly felt that high) and the observatory to observe the town and fjords below.  Translation–we dug out the selfie stick.  

You know what happens when you climb up 418 stairs? You have to go back down those same 418 weirdly numbered stairs! Needless to say, we hit our 10k step goal very early in the morning.

We wandered the town in a frantic, picture taking frenzy– snapping pics of all that Art Nouveau goodness. We were on a mission to see as much as possible as we needed to hurry back to the ship for an 11:45 excursion. And someone was trying to guide us back to the boat without paying attention to the person with the map. Someone was panicked. Someone was calm, cool, and collected because she knew where she was going!

Do you know what happens when you have an 11:45 excursion? You miss lunch! Boat lunch starts at 11:30, which does not leave time for a salad, a bowl of pineapple, and a donut! Luckily, thetwinsontour travel with snacks. (My daddy taught me well–never leave home without at least 2 granola bars in your pocket–it keeps the hangry away.) Where were we headed on this lunchtime excursion? The islands of Giske and Godoy! These islands are connected to Ålesund by underwater, subterranean tunnels! Yes. Unfortunately, in my mind, I picture an underwater sea walk at an aquarium. This was not the case. It was just a boring tunnel. You would never even know you were traveling underwater. Not even a mural of an octopus. Alas, it was exciting nonetheless.

These are just little tiny islands. Giske doesn’t even have any stores on it now that they have a tunnel and can easily go shopping in bigger places. We went to a church built in the 1100s by a prominent Viking family. You cannot go inside, but still several very interesting facts. It is built out of marble. Yes, marble! This is also something you would never know if I didn’t tell you. Marble doesn’t hold up well in the harsh sea winds, so they had to cover the outside with plaster. I don’t know how many years it took them to realize this though. It was a very important pilgrimage site for many years before the Danish king decided that Norway should be Protestant instead of Catholic. The Pope had written a letter to the church, and if you kissed the cross etched into the side of the building, all if your sins would be forgiven.

Also, there is a bit of a mystery as to where the marble came from because there is no marble in Norway. They think it’s probably Italian. Which leads us to another mystery! How did they get giant blocks of marble from Italy to Norway on little Viking ships? Probably Aliens. Has to be.

For the next island of Godoy, we also went through a remarkable, or is that unremarkable, underwater tunnel. Our goal there was a cool lighthouse. I’ll admit, I know nothing about this. I don’t know if the guide talked about it because I climbed the steep, narrow steps to the top. The steps that the old people were scared to climb down until I told them to go down backwards. What would these people do without thetwinsontour? It was super, super windy atop the lighthouse. It was also pretty windy on the ground. This is probably why they need a lighthouse here because of the wind.

Last stop of the day was back in town at the observatory which we had already climbed 418 steps to get to in the morning. Guess we could have saved a lot of steps if we had paid attention to the itinerary. Oops. But where is the fun in that? Since we needed time to shop and had already seen the view with a lot less people in the way, we ditched the end of the tour and willingly walked down 418 steps. But you know, thetwinsontour like to walk on the wild side.

Love,

thetwinsontour

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Our first stop in Norway was the tiny village of Eidfjord, population 962 per Wikipedia.  It did not disappoint.  Our frantic planning the day before told us that we wanted to visit a waterfall, a church built in 1309, and then to hike the blue and/or yellow route.  More details on this later.

So the ship docked bright and early at 7am, which means thetwinsontour had to get up at the buttcrack of dawn in order to make it to breakfast when they opened.  Gotta beat the masses to breakfast so we don’t have to wait in line for our sweet potato waffles and omlettes.   Anyways, we made it off the boat right on time– just a few minutes after 7am.   The tourist information office is about 20 feet from the boat.  And then…we had to wait in line for them to open.   They didn’t open until about 7:30am, but at least the other people in line were friendly.   So the lady at the info desk told the 2 ladies in front of us that she was waiting for confirmation on the bus to the waterfall, but that they could take a taxi instead.  She said that the bus was, I think 350 krona/person and the taxi was 270 krona per person with 4 people.  And these ladies, said, but there are only 2 of us.  And since I was desperate to get to the waterfall after having wasted a precious half hour of shore time waiting for tourist info to open, I, of course, said we can join you.  So, off to the waterfall we went with Carol and Cindy from Virginia.  

For those of you wondering on the conversion rate, there’s about 10 Norwegian Krona to the dollar. So it cost $27 each for a round trip taxi ride to the waterfalls.   The only bad thing is that you get half an hour at the falls, which is not NEARLY enough time.  There’s lots of stairs (and lack of stairs) to get to the various viewing platforms.   And then you have to take a bunch of selfies, a video of the falls, and just bask in their glory.   We took about 35 minutes because we overestimated our ability to quickly climb the steep trail back to the parking lot in the rain. Our taxi driver was a little testy, but we got some great pictures.  All the taxis and busses only allow a half hour there because they have to get back for the next round of people.   I read this on tripadvisor, too. 

After that, we did find the church in Eidfjord built in the 1300s, which is pretty old.  It’s just a small little church.  You just have to be sure to shut the door so the birds don’t get in.  

Then, after a few missed turns (who else but thetwinsontour would get turned around in a village of 962, but we are good at getting lost!) we found our way to the yellow hiking trail.  Mind you, we didn’t have a map or know where the yellow trail went, or how long of a hike it was, but I had read a review on tripadvisor that mentioned the blue and yellow trails.   There were lots of people on the trail.  After a while, I noticed that all of the people were going in the same direction, and no one was coming in the opposite direction.   Finally. I asked someone if they knew where the trail went, and he said it’s a mile walk to the beach, and we were at about .8 miles.  He also mentioned some burial grounds further up the mountain. It seemed like we had been walking much longer than .8 miles, but it’s impossible to walk very far in Norway without stopping for photos.  Everything is so beautiful and picturesque.  It’s literally just amazing.   And there are mushrooms!

We did make it to a beach on a fresh water lake. The views were amazing. Interpret this as “lot’s of selfies were taken.” Then we had to decide– complete the loop or backtrack? By my calculations and map reading skills, it was only a smidgen further to complete the loop. And we hate backtracking!

So we walked for what seemed like miles (with our new friend Carol from the waterfall taxi in tow), but the trail did lead us to the ancient Viking  burial grounds.  You wouldn’t really know that it was something important if it wasn’t roped off with a sign in front of it.   The sign said that there are probably hundreds in the area, but burial mound styles changed over the years, so some are bigger than others.  Really, for thetwinsontour, the exciting part was the horses grazing on the luscious green grass with the hills and gently rolling fog in the background. Worth the whole treacherous hike on the nice and wide and beautifully paved path.

Later we read that the hike was supposed to take 75-90 minutes.  We did not time ourselves, but needless to say thetwinsontour took more than 90 minutes to complete the trail.  Besides, Norwegians are pretty tall, so they have longer legs and walk faster. 

To close out a perfect day in Eidfjord, we had a Norwegian ice cream!  It’s ice cream, in Norway.  We got a soft serve in a cup (cones are too messy).  This may be the most delicious soft serve thetwinsontour have ever eaten!  Somehow, it tasted like if Dairy Queen and Costco creamy, fluffy cake icing had a baby, it would be soft serve ice cream in Norway.   So delicious! 

All aboard time was 2:30 today, so it was a short but magical day in Norway.  Of course, thetwnsontour took advantage of every second!

The cruise ship did a slow scenic cruise out of Eidfjord so that we could again bask in the glory of the Norwegian Fjords from our balcony and then a frantic trip up to the deck so that we could see the largest suspension bridge in Norway (and maybe beyond?).  I do not have enough adjectives to describe the grandeur of the fjords, so I will end for now.

Love,

thetwinsontour

We boarded the ship around noon on Saturday after an extremely over-priced (surprise, surprise) taxi ride to the cruise port.  The hotel front desk said it would be about 20 euros give or take, but it was 37 euros. Where my math friends at? That is very nearly double what we were expecting. Yikes! Why the heck is everything in Amsterdam so dang pricey? It is ridiculous! But by this point, we are basically immune to overpriced goods and services. Take my money! Sure beats slugging my suitcase 45 minutes across the tourist infestation that is downtown Amsterdam.

Nothing else was super exciting or memorable. We made it onto the ship, found our room, and went to lunch. (We were not spending any more money in Amsterdam!) The boat has a buffet– but most of it is not help yourself. If you want a salad, you wait in line, and they make it for you with your chosen ingredients, like at Subway.

I consider myself to be technologically savvy and can handle basic internet tasks. However, when it came to creating a login ID for the Holland America App, I just couldn’t do it! I had to head to guest services for some internet assistance. While we were standing in line, we heard this horrendous crashing noise. Then the staff all took off running. Some lady had fallen down a flight of marble stairs! I assume she was European because no one in her group seemed too hysterical (and I did not go peep over the railing), but I heard her tumbling. And she didn’t get up. Something had to have been broken. We had been cruising for about an hour.

A while later, we were out on deck, pretending to be walking laps, but really, we were taking selfies. There were lots of Dutch people out taking pictures of our cruise ship. (I don’t even take that many pictures of the cruise ship, and I am traveling on it!). We were going through some locks, and I was thinking– ooh, is this going to be like th Panama Canal? Then I noticed an ambulance, staring at our ship. And some guys in yellw coats- with ropes– that they started tossing to our ship– and then our ship was tossing back giant lassos– that they were then looping to steel pylons on the locks. This was no  Panama Canal– they were stopping our ship! So, then we were stopped– and the ambulance crew was staring at the entrance to our ship– and I heard them utter the words “too dangerous.”” Then one of the captains came walking out and looking over the railing and climbing on the life boats, trying to figure out what to do. Then the captain came over the speakers and said we were stopped, waiting on the firemen to come and bring a ladder so that the paramedics could board the ship and help someome off with their medical emergency (reference above tumble.) So, we naturally stood and waited on the firetruck– watched them bring a ladder for boarding the ship– they all strapped on jaunty silver life jackets before crossing the gang plank they had also brought on the fire truck–you know, safety first.  But, then, you guys, there was a second fire truck with a cherry picker that they lowered down to the ship entrance. Right about, then they came out on the deck and made us all go inside for the privacy of the guest–which, I get, but I wanted to watch the firetruck! And really, why didn’t the ship have an emergy gang plank that the paramedics could have used? Surely this wasn’t the first emergency they have had?  And also, thank goodness for socialized medicine. Can you imagine what kind of bill the ambulance would send for waiting around for over an hour, or the bill for three fire trucks, including a cherry picker? Not to mention the port authorities working the locks? I can’t even fathom it.

Clearly the rest of the evening would have paled in comparison to that kind of excitement.  

Sunday was our day at sea. We spent the day  going to meetings to try and figuure out what we need to do while in Norway because, well, surprise surprise, this trip came up much quicker than expected and we didn’t have a darn thing planned.   Still not sure that we know what we are doing, but at least we will be slightly more informed in our lack of Norwegian shore knowledge.  

What else did we do?  Well, it is a cruise ship, so what do you think?  Raise your hand if you said EAT!  After fighting the masses at the breakfast buffet, we decided to eat lunch in the sit-down restaurant.  Nothing too remarkable, but it was tasty.  

The dessert did not make our hearts go pitter patter, so after lunch we went to the cafeteria to get some dessert from the buffet. That’s how we roll!  For dinner, we had our fancy restaurant complementary dinner at the Asian restaurant.  It was all quite delicious, but paled in comparison to the dessert. Seriously, it will probably be the best thing I eat for the whole entire rest of the cruise.   What was this wonder you ask?  Mango Posset.  I have no idea what a posset is, but I want more of it.  There was a scoop of creamy mango sorbet, atop a coconut macroon (the only weak spot of the dish), in a bed of mango puree.  There are no words to describe how good this stuff was.  Oh, and since we were also tempted by the assortment of gelatos, they brought us out a flight (yeah just like beer) of different gelato flavors.  The clear winner of the sampler was the lychee flavor–quite delicious!  We also had zulu or zuzu? It’s a Japanese citrus.  The other was lemon basil. I didn’t care for it, but my sister polished it off in quick order. 

Well, I guess that’s about it.  There’s only so much you can write about a day at sea. 

Goodbye for now!

Love,

thetwinsontour

#Bohrn2wander  seriously, why did we never think of this hashtag before?  It’s brilliant, eh? 

PS. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram!  I am still not paying extra to include pictures in these blogs.  and I don’t remember how I inserted that hyperlink before.  

As previously mentioned, on Friday we were double booked for the Ann Frank House and the Van Gogh museum.  So we started out bright and early for Ann Frank’s house, which is about a 15 minute walk from the hotel.  It took us 26 minutes.  Too many beautiful canals and bridges on the way required photos and selfies. 

Anyways, we still arrived a few minutes before our 9:30 entrance time.  They provide you an audio guide, and the tour takes about an hour.  Usually, I am not an audio guide fan, but there’s no way to see and/or enjoy the museum without it.  We have been here before (back when you could just walk up, buy tickets, and walk right in), but I didn’t remember much of it.  Twenty-three years is a long time ago!  I’m quite ashamed to admit it,  but I have never actually read her diary. The museum is the secret annex where her family and 4 other Jews lived above the factory where her father had worked.  The annex is hidden behind a movable book shelf and is actually several stories of rooms.  It’s bigger than I thought it would be, but still quite small to stay hidden in for 2 years. I can’t even stay in my house an afternoon before I get restlesss and decide I need to go to the Dollar Tree or Walmart.  I can’t imagine hiding out, being quiet, not running the water during the day for 2 years.   Her father was the only one out of the eight people that survived the concentration camps they were taken to.

There’s no photos allowed inside the museum, but most of their belongings were removed when they were discovered and arrested.  The rooms are empty of furniture.  There’s video screens throughout that show interviews with her father and various other survivors.  I am glad that we were able to get tickets to visit.   Tickets are released weekly, six weeks in advance.  That means I had to set a reminder on my phone so that I could buy the tickets on May 27.  The tickets usually sell out in a day, and some time slots were already sold out when we bought ours early in the morning  .

After that, we had a 27 minute walk (per the google maps, which now tells me that I need to turn in 40 meters.  Seriously, just because I am in Netherlands doesn’t mean I want my directions in the metric system Google!)

The Van Gogh Museum is located in what is called the Museem Platz.  The National Art Gallery (which we did not purchase tickets to or have time to visit) is here as well. We also came here in 2000.  We were traveling around Europe for two months, and everywhere we went, someone was carrying a yellow poster tube from the Van Gogh museum. Seriously, all over Europe there were Van Gogh poster tubes.  Somehow, we were strong and did not succumb to poster tube peer pressure in 2000 or 2023.   These tickets we bought way before the Ann Frank ticekts.  They release them much further in advance, but they do not sell out quite as quickly.  If you are not picky about an entrance time, you can get some for next week right now.   But don’t delay because they WILL sell out. But I think despite what the tickets say, at Van Gogh it is more of a suggested entrance time.  We were supposed to arrive between 10 and 1030 per our ticket, but we left Ann Frank around 10:30 and then had a 27 minute walk to get there.  It was after 11 and they didn’t say a word when they looked at my ticket and ushered me into the building. And when they scanned my ticket at the entrance, no flashing lights or sirens went off.  But we were also just a little over an hour late from our assigned entrance time. 

I love Van Gogh and appeantly the rest of the world also thinks they love Van Gogh.  It was miserably crowded even with timed entrances. There were just people everywhere. Standing in my way, blocking the Sunflowers, blocking the self portraits, blocking every painting.  Of course, we did not let that stop us, but it did slow me down!  We spent over 3 hours there basking in the glory that is Van Gogh.  I wish he had known how beloved his work would be, maybe he would not have ended his life and would have kept on painting into perpetuity.   Just imagine, he spent the last 10 years of his life painting and painted over 800 paintings.  That is an incredible amount. He was a painting machine. There’s even a painting in the museum that he painted on a kitchen towel when he ran out of canvas.  He was unstoppable.  

There were a handful of paintings in the museum that were not Van Gogh’s– they were works that inspired Van Gogh– like Monet.  And, no one was standing in front of the Monets because, duh, not Van Gogh! Only at the Van Gogh would people scoff at a Monet!

Did I mention that we were there for over 3 hours? Needless to say, thetwinsontour were HANGRY.  As soon as we left there, we sat down at the first restaurant we found.  A restaurant with a broken oven. Fear not!  Their stovetop was working, so we got a “toastie” with shredded beef and some sauces.  It was delicious, and also 14 euros.  For context, it costs 16 euros to go to Ann Frank and 20 euros for Van Gogh.   And the dollar is about .91 euros, so that was more than 15 dollars for a little sandwich.   And we did NOT care because we were hangry.  Also, pretty much everything in Amsterdam is crazy expensive like that. Except french fries.  

After that we walked over to the Flower Market because my sister wanted to see tulips.  We found some, they were silk.   But, they have house plants so cheap!  They had beautiful umbrella plants for only 10 euros.  It is at least a $25-30 plant if you are lucky enough to find it at Sam’s Club.  If I didn’t have to get on a cruise ship and an airplane, and if it was legal to bring plants into the US, I would be the proud owner of at least 1 new umbrella plant.  They are virtually impossible to kill.  I have been trying since 1998 to kill the one I got from Grandpa’s funeral, but after 23 years it is finally flourishing.  I think it’s the regular watering that it gets now.  A dozen roses was about the same price.  

Then we walked a couple blocks over to Rembrant Plaza because how do you go to the Netherlands and not pay homage in some way to the other great Dutch painter?  There was an opera singer in the plaza giving a free concert! Complete with piano and cello.  Believe it or not, that was not the first full-sized piano we saw in the streets of Amsterdam.  The Dutch will not be intimidated by the logistics of wheeling a piano through the streets!  

As you may be able to guess, our phones were dangerously low on battery power after all of this non-stop excitement.  After a 30 minute airplane mode phone charge at the hotel, we were back out again to eat more pancakes.   Obviously, since it was dinner time, we got the savory pancakes this time.  Ham and cheese!  Quite tasty indeed!  And do you know what the best part was?  At this  particular pancake restaurant, you get a free souvenir keychain of a wooden shoe.  FREE!  thetwinsontour LOVE FREE STUFF!!!  Who wouldn’t want a Pancake House wooden shoe keychain?  Oh, well then, I will take yours too!

For the grand finale of the evening, STROOPWAFEL!   Yes, we had spied a Stroopwafel place earlier in the day with a long line outside the door, and we knew we had to go back for dessert.  There’s just no avoiding the allure off the stroopwafel anymore than the moth can avoid the flame or the twinsontour can avoid free stuff.  It’s impossible.   Impossible I say!

So, of course, even though it was 8pm, there was a long line of tourists outside the door.  Most of the other shops on the pedestrian street were closed, but Van Wonderen Stroopwafels since 1907 is open until 10pm.   The thing is, there are no prices posted for the Stroopwafels, just examples of the flavors like they do at Crumble.  Then they ask you if you want mini, medium, or mega.  The Mega just seemed excessive so we got a medium sea salt caramel and a medium Diam (a kind of European chocolate candy).  Can you guess what the total was? It was 26 euros!  Which was $30.  Those Stroopwafels were $15 each. Crazy!  Even the British guy we were talking to later thought that was outrageous, and he was from London.  Anways, the Stroopwafels were delicious and worth ever bit of their $13 euro price tag. Maybe. Probably. Definitely.

Obviously, by this time , it well was past thetwinsontour bedtime. 

Good night from Amsterdam!

PS. But wait!  There is more.   We didn’t have to board the cruise ship until noon on Saturday, so what did thetwinsontour do?  Sleep in late and relax?  Heck no!  We booked a free walking tour around Amsterdam at 9am.  Ideally, you should do a walking tour the first day you get to a city, not a couple hours before you leave, but I think that we have proven that there was absolutely no time for this previously. None at all! 

The only problem with our 9am walking tour was that it started to rain, and then it proceeded to rain at 9am, and rain throughout most of the tour. My pants were wet, my shoes were wet, and my socks were absolutely soaked through by the end of the tour.  Intrestingly enough, the tour ended about 11 and so did the rain.  Yes, it only rained during the walking tour.  Typical.   Good news is that our brand new REI raincoats are waterproof! The rest of me may have been soaked, but my raincoat was nice and dry! Surprisingly, this is a remarkably difficult feat. I don’t know why raincoats are not all waterproof.

We walked past the monkey bar, which is the oldest bar (and building too I think) in Amsterdam. It is one of only 2 wooden buildings remaining after a bad fire many years ago.  We saw the oldest gay bar in the world, dating back to pre WWII  We saw the skinniest house in Amsterdam.  It was built on a 15 foot wide plot instead of a 30 foot wide plot like all the others.   Absoultely adorable!  I think its a tea shop now?  Our guide sent us through a block of the red light district.  Obviously, at 10am there were no ladies sitting in windows (a very outdated buisiness model according to your guide), And we walked into a coffee shop for about 30 seconds, but the smell of marijuana smoke at 10:30 in the morning was a bit overwhelming.   It was surprising how many people are smoking pot in coffee shops on Saturday mornings.  

So, pot is not legal in Amsterdam. It is just de-criminalized.   Meaning that you can not be punished for smoking it.  The only legal place to buy it is in the coffee shops. There are a limited number of coffee shops in Amsterdam, and they will not add anymore.  However, there are only 2 legal marijuana farms in the Netherlands which is not enough farms to supply all the coffee shops and massive numbers of tourists, so the coffee shop owners have to buy the pot illegally in order to legally sell it in their shops.  Also, an outdated business model.  And that is coffee shops in a nut shell. They also sell coffee, but I can’t imagine wanting to go sit in a haze of pot smoke to drink  a capuccino.

The end!  Next stop, cruising to Norway!!!!!!

It feels like forever since our last adventure!  But here we are in Amsterdam, whose beautiful canals and museums we last visted in October 2000. Twenty three years ago, we had film cameras and no cell phones.  We had to find our way around town with paper maps and a Let’s Go Europe book.  Whoa!  Crazy right?!? 

Anyways, we arrived on Thursday morning well before the official 3pm check-in time at our hotel.   So, after depositing our luggage in the luggage storage room, we were off to eat and explore!  We had passed a pancake restaurant while rolling our overstuffed suitcases down the sidewalks from the train station to the hotel, so we knew we had to go back there. I mean, how do you pass up Dutch Pancakes?  thetwinsontour sure can’t!  Dutch pancakes are as big as a dinner plate and come with various toppings– like baked apples and whipped cream!  They also had a Dutch brand of syrup on the table, but it wasn’t nearly as good as Mrs. Butterworths, so I just stuck with yummy whipped cream.  

/You know what else we passed on the way to our hotel, suitcases in tow? Madame Tuassauds wax museum!  That was not on our mental list of potential activities because we went there in 2000. Been there, done that.   But it was right there!  Just 1 block from the hotel.   And we had plenty of free time. It was like a sign that we needed to go again.  The price has gone up considerably in the past 23 years.  Actually, I have no idea what it cost back then, but it had to be significantly less than the 26 euros it costs now.    The euro is pretty strong right now, so that translates to about $30 a person. Which is crazy.   Needless to say, we took pictures with every single wax statue they had (except Donald Trump).   Leo DiCaprio, Lady Gaga, ET, multiple James Bonds, Marilyn, Madonna (or as her frends call her, Madge), Dutch speed skaters, Queen Maxima and whatever the King’s name is.  I think you get the picture.  

Now, the only thing we really remember from 23 years ago was that there was a smashed penny machine in the exit stairs.  And it was broken and it had taken our money.  There were 2 Dutch guys there who  really wanted a smashed penny, so they went to find a worker.  We all waited in that stairewell forever and ever.  And no one ever came to fix the penny machine.  So, for 23 years, that is all I can think of about the wax museum—the smashed penny that I was not able to get.  It’s left a sour tasete in my mouth for all these years.  But guess what?!?  There is still a penny machine in the stairwell, and it works!  I finally got my Madame Tuassauds smashed penny!  After all these years.  It feels so good to be able to have a happy ending to my wax museum story, finally!

So, for the afternoon.  We were supposed to go to the Van Gogh museum.  At least, that is what I have been thinking in my head for the past 6 weeks or more. We were going to the Van Gogh museum on Thursday afternoon and then the Ann Frank House museum on Friday morning.   So, here’s a friendly little reminder, as you get older, it is best to look things up and write things down rather than go by memory.   Because when you book your Van Gogh tickets in April for an August visit (quite necessary if you want to go), you may think that you have tickets for Van Gogh on Thursday afternoon, but you really have them for 10am Friday morning.  At the EXACT same time that you booked your Ann Frank tickets for.  Yes, we had tickets for Van Gogh at 10am and Ann Frank at 9:30am.   And the museums are about a mile and a half apart.  What a conondrum!  

We asked our friendly hotel clerk, and he did not seem to think it was too much of a problem.  His first suggestion was to go to Van Gogh and sell our Ann Frank tickets for $100-200 euros each.  Which did have a certain appeal…  However, he said that Ann Frank is more strict on ticket times so to do that first.   He called ahead to the Van Gogh museum for us and confirmed we could show up late (whew!).  

But let’s circle back to Thursday afternoon.  We also saw lots of canal cruises on our way from the train station to the hotel.  The station is surrounded by canals and piers for canal boats.   So, this too seemed like a sign that we should take a canal cruise (which is something I don’t think we did on our first visit to Amsterdam!)  (I think we did….) So we stopped in one of those tourist ticket places to check on canal cruises.  Of course, she started waxing poetic about the many different canal cruises that are available in Amsterdam (there are about a gajillion different ones).  The open-air  boat sounded like an ideal option since it was a beautiful sunny day with nary a cloud in sight, but my sister had a vision that could not be ignored.  You see, my daddy visited Amsterdam sometime in the early 60s when he was in the Navy.  And there’s this amazing picture of him in a blazer and way cooler sunglasses than I ever saw him wear,  looking remarkably like James Bond as he steps into a glass covered boat.  And, well, clearly we needed to duplicate my daddy’s photographic masterpiece.  So the ticket agent said it looked most like the Lover’s fully enclosed canal boats.   However, it was such a beautiful day that we decided that the semi-enclosed boats were close enough.  And well, I guess I wasn’t supposed to share that secret with you–  that we only semi-recreated the photo.  But I was also wearing my dirty airplane trravel clothes and not a stylish tweed blazer.  Seriously, can anyone picture my daddy in a blazer?  I cannot even fathom this.  It will always be a mystery because we didn’t discover this picture until long after he had passed away. It was in Aunt Marfie’s attic.   I digress.  

So, we consider the photo a 100% successful re–creation.  Unfortunately, our phone photo editing programs do not have sepia as a filter (crazy huh?) Luckily my favorite cousin is a genius and was able to fix it for us.  Oh, the glories of the internet!

After all this exertion, it was definitely time for a snack. And by snack, I mean French Fries. And not just any French Fry, but The Best French Fry in The Netherlands! Yes! We love when things are the best because who wants second best? Let me tell you, these fries were pretty darn good! The line was about a half hour long, which means that the fries are fresh, hot, and crispy. They were a thick cut fry, with a crisp outside and soft inside. They are served in a paper cone. You eat them with a wooden pitch fork. And, the sauce menu. I don’t even know what the options were. The one I got was some mustard, mayo, spice mix that my sleep- deprived brain can no longer remember. And for some reason, the cheese sauce was vegan with hints of vinegar. (Not being vegan, I have no idea– is vinegar flavored cheese normal?!) I ate it anyways and scraped every last drop of cheese sauce off the side of the paper cone. We just got the small order of fries, but it was literally an entire meal worth of fries. We gave it our best effort, but were not able to eat all the fries. Actually, the sauce doesn’t make it all the way to the bottom of the cone and they are kinda cold by the time you make it to the bottom of the cone, which leads me to believe you aren’t supposed to eat them all. It’s only logical, right?

Having gotten only a couple hours of sleep on the airplane, we were pretty much walking zombies by this point in the day. We headed back to the hotel to charge our phones and rest our feet. We weren’t supposed to nap, but that plan lasted about 4 minutes and 12 seconds. Needless to say, we took a power nap.

We forced ourselves to leave the hotel by 6, so that we could roam the streets of Amsterdam. We were hunting for a grocery store so that we could buy some Dutch yogurt. Or, really, any yogurt. Yogurt makes me happy. A yogurt a day keeps the doctor away. Interestingly enough, the mini marts can’t sell alcohol after 4 pm. Not sure if this is to prevent displays of touristic public drunkenness or to encourage liquor sales at restaurants and bars. Not that I wanted any liquor. I wanted yogurt. And candy.

We were back to the hotel by a little after 8. Which gave us time to eat our yogurt and shower and be in bed by sunset.

And, that is Day 1 in a nutshell. Day 2 will be a separate post. I am sure you are tired of reading. I am tired of writing for sure.

Bohrn2Wander,

thetwinsontour

We started out the day in the religious pilgrimage site of Mt. Nebo. Mt Nebo’s most famous citizen is probably Moses–you know that guy from the Bible that parted the Red Sea and wandered the desert for 40 years? Well, he died in Mt Nebo within site of the Promised Land, so he’s buried somewhere there in Mt. Nebo. But no one knows exactly where he’s buried. From where we were, we could see (supposedly) the Holy Land. In fact, we were so close to Israel that we got a welcome to Israel text from Tmobile (just another way that Tmobile has let me down this trip. This is starting to be a theme!)

Anyways, we went to a church there with the most amazingly preserved floor tile mosaics. The building itself is plain, ugly, and quite new (less than 20 years old). It’s actually a Unesco World Heritage Site, our 2nd of the trip. How are these floor mosaics so well preserved? I know the answer!! I was actually listening. So, way back in the day, they made this floor mosaic to represent the circle of life, but it is like hunting, then farming, etc. and not Mufasa holding Baby Simba up over the wildebeest Circle of Life. Then, there was this King who wanted to destroy all religious icons because people were praying to the icons instead of to God. But, the priest in charge of these floor mosaics wanted to protect them– so they built another floor on top of them– with geometric and flower patterns. This was like in the 700s. These floors were just hidden in plain site until 2003. In 2003 they discovered the floor tiles underneath the geometric ones (which are now hanging on the walls.) Hence, you have perfect floor mosaics from the 700s that no one knew about until 20 years ago. Apparently even before that discovery in 2003, this was a special holy site, because of Moses and all, and it even warranted a visit from the Pope. He planted an olive tree. Even though today Jordan is 92% Islamic, it is like the birthplace of Christianity, and chock full of holy sites and churches.

Our next stop was Madaba to see some more mosaic tiles. This one was a map of religious sites– in Jordan, Israel, Syria, and Egypt. This floor tile looks like you would expect something from the 700s to look like– a little worse for the wear– with large chunks of it missing and such. This floor mosaic was badly damaged in the great earthquake of 747. Yes, we are lamenting damage that occurred 1500 years ago, several centuries before the Crusades. Evidently, the Pope used this floor map to determine that Bethany was in Jordan and not in Israel. Maybe he decided that on his Jubilee tour in 2000? That would have been a really busy trip– planting trees at Mt Nebo and settling biblical land disputes all in one trip?! I don’t know how he would have had any spare moments to take selfies.

The mosaics are made of different colors of stones. They ate not colored ceramic tiles which is what I always thought of when I thought of mosaics. So they are all natural colors, but there’s still some blue and green stones out there.

As amazing as all of this is, it is all kinda overshadowed by our evening activity–Petra by night!!! Woo hoo! So for “Petra by night”, you go as far as the Treasury which is where Indiana Jones went searching for the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (by far the best Indiana Jones movie). The path is lit by luminaries. I don’t know how many millions of candles they go through every day or how many people it takes to set them all up because it’s about a mile and a half from the entrance gate to the Treasury. And, well, luminaries are not very bright. thetwinsontour were super glad to have handy little flashlights that they always pack and never need! Anyways there’s millions of people all racing to get there, and thetwinsontour were the only people stopping to take pictures! However, at times it seemed like some of those French people really wanted to take us out for stopping! Or maybe they just couldn’t see us in the dark, but I’m pretty sure they just wanted to knock us over.

Then once you make it to the Treasury, they make everyone sit down. There’s a few rows of folding stools, but most people have to sit on long plastic beach mats. Maybe that’s why everyone was running? So they could sit on a folding camping stool? They light the facade up with colorful lights. We did discover that the blue light was not bright enough for good selfies in the dark. The white and pink seemed to work the best. So there we are sitting on mats over the sand and wiggling around trying to get the best selfie angle without blocking the view for orhers. It is difficult because of people’s big heads and giant IPads held up in the air. There was a mini concert of people playing the flute, but that was not great. They brought around cups of tea for everyone while we “enjoyed” the music, and then a guy came out to tell the history of Petra or something like that. I am really good at ignoring people talking like that, so he could have said anything.

Lots of people got up and left early (CRAZY! Right?) so we were able to squeeze up a bit closer and get different selfie angles. But really, all we had to do was wait a while longer til it was over, and then we were able to stand up and get right next to the Treasury. The proper photographer pose is to hold the flashlight in your right hand directly over your head to lightly illuminate your subject and then hold your phone in the left. Voila! Perfectly lit night picture. Kind of. It takes a lot of practice, for the common person at least, thetwinsontour got this stuff down!

Ok, that’s more than enough about Day 4.

Love,

thetwinsontour

There are no words to describe the joy that is in my heart today! No words to describe the grandeur of what I have experienced. No words to describe the amazing sites I have witnessed today. What could possibly be an awe inspiring you ask? Well, Roman Ruins of course! thetwinsontour LOVE Roman Ruins probably even more than early Black Friday sales at Kohls so that is saying a lot.

Our itinerary said we were visiting a Roman settlement called Jerash. But this is not just any Roman city. This is the largest preserved Roman city outside of Rome! It was huge! I got nearly 10,000 steps just walking around there. And the selfie possibilities were infinite. It is not a Unesco World Heritage site because more than 20% of it has been restored. The French started restoring it back in 1983. And, let me tell you, it was MARVELOUS!

Refer to opening sentence. The end!

Love,

thetwinsontour

PS. On the way back, we stopped at the Royal Automobile Museum. Don’t tell my daddy, but I kind of enjoyed it. It’s mostly cars that have been owned by the King of Jordan since Jordan was founded in 1946. Lots of Rolls-Royce, Mercedes, and Harley Davidson– all restored so that they are in immaculate condition (which seems repetitive to me…. like why would you restore something to less than immaculate?) But there was also some pieces of Jordanian historical significance like the Star Wars Speeder from The Rise of Skywalker which was filmed in Wadi Rum in 2919

Today we stayed in Amman which is the capital of Jordan. As is to be expected, traffic is horrible even though gas is like $8 a gallon.   Anyways our morning was filled with Roman Ruins!  Did you know that thetwinsontour LOVE Roman Ruins?  It’s true, we really, really, really do.  

My cell phone told me that the high today was going to be 66 degrees.  Lies!  Just more ways that Tmobile is leading me astray on this trip. I was walking around the Citadel in my official travel hoodie melting in the heat.  It was so toasty out there in the unrelenting sun that it felt like 85 degrees. But I digress.  We went to the Citadel at the top of the hill.   Our guide said, I’m not going to try to tell you all of the history of Jordan on the first day.  And actually that’s a really good thing because as you know, I would have not listened to most of it anyways. 

There’s a whole lot of history up in the Citadel.  The star attraction is the Temple of Hercules because it’s a Roman Ruin.  At one point, probably when the Romans built it, there was a colossal statue of Hercules.  Probably why they named it for him.  But all that remains is one hand and an elbow.  Based on the size of the hand, this Hercules was even bigger than the one in Rome.  Did you know that Ricky Martin was the Spanish voice for Disney’s version of Hercules.  I guess we should have rewatched that to prepare for Jordan instead of Lawrence of Arabia.   Next to the Roman Ruins are Byzantine ruins–the ruins of a Byzantine Church to be more exact.  And then after that, there’s some ancient Islamic ruins.  I think it was a Palace.  But what I do know is that it suffered the same fate as just about everything magnificent in Jordan–earthquake damage.  Don’t know which one, but it doesn’t really matter.  The building now has a wooden dome instead of the original stone dome. And the wooden dome was built by the Spanish! Way to go Spain! Anyways three different cultural eras and building styles right there on top the hill alongside a cave labeled as being an early Bronze Age cave from 2250 BC.  See what I mean? A whole lotta history going on up there!

And do you know what you can see from the Vista point at the Citadel? A Roman theater! That was our next stop. It is a theater, not an Amphitheater. Amphitheaters are complete circles. Theaters are half circles. This means that they were not used by gladiators. Furthermore, this is a Roman theater built in the Greek style. It was built into the side of a mountain and it has really steep seats and steps. Trust me on the steepness– my thighs are really feeling that workout. Thetwinsontour climbed all the way to the top level– grasping onto every step for dear life as we clawed our way to the top. (As previously proven, thetwinsontour will do quite a lot for the perfect selfie opportunity.) Of course, this was steeper and scarier than being in the 2nd level of the Sprint Center. Thetwinsontour knew a small moment of panic of the thought of getting back down. The Romans should really have installed a zip line or an elevator. Not sure what they were thinking. These steps are steep, narrow, and worn with age in the middle. In short, rather precarious for the nimble footed twinsontour. Have no fear! We made it down safely– just started out on my butt, then climbed down them backwards. One step at a time.

After gorging our eyes on so many glorious ruins, we were off to have typical Jordanian food for lunch. We had falafel, pitas, hummus, and French fries. So, the first thing they did was bring out a giant sheet of plastic and covered the table with it. Then they slammed down some piles of pitas right there on the plastic. To eat like a true Jordanian, you tear the pita bread into pieces and dip it into the hummus. Or you do it like an American and spread the hummus evenly onto the pita. This food was simple and delicious. Now, here comes the genius part. Remember those sheets of plastic? When the meal is over, they don’t come pick up each individual plate and carry it away. Nope, they pile it all up and bundle it up like Santa’s bag of presents. Viola! Table cleaned off in 37 seconds.

Of course, there were still more culinary Delights coming our way. Dessert! Ok, and let me tell you, thetwinsontour could eat this on the daily. It is some kind of rice noodles drenched in honey, dusted in pistachios, and resting on a bed of melty-gooey goat’s milk cheese. Sounds disgusting to American sensibilities (reader you know which one of you I am talking to.) But, believe you me. thetwinsontour know their desserts. thetwinsontour will never steer you wrong when it comes to tasty goodness. And this was soooo good. Unfortunately, I gorged myself on the above-mentioned hummus and was not able to eat all of my dessert. Gasp! I know I must be sick because seriously, what is wrong with me?

Throw in a much needed afternoon nap, and that sums up our day in Jordan.

Love,

thetwinsontour

PS. If you want to see pictures you will have to follow the_twins_on_tour on the Instagram or thetwinsontour on Facebook because as previously stated, I am not paying $40 for more storage space on this blog and Flickr is too much of a pain to deal with while I am sitting in my hotel room.

Today is day 1 of Jordan– aka Country 73. We got to our hotel last night at like 5 pm, had a quick dinner, showered, and crashed for 12 hours. One would think after that restorative sleep, thetwinsontour would be ready– maybe even early– for their first day adventures. Imagine our shock when the tour guide we hired for the day called us at 8:30 asking where we were– we had agreed to a 9:00 am pickup! So, we hurried down to the lobby only to discover it was actually 9:30! T-mobile led us astray! Such a rookie mistake! We are going to spend the next 12 days in a state of constant confusion. ugh.. Evidently Jordan doesn’t participate in Daylight Savings Time, but Tmobile thinks that they do.

Our excursion today was to The Black Desert. It is so called because the sand is covered in Black rocks from a volcano (that I don’t know where is.) We got to see castles, scenery, and nature.

Quasr Al-Harrana: First up was a castle! Okay, so it isn’t a castle, but it looks like one. It was actually an ancient hotel–built in the early 700s, but damaged in the great quake of 747. Yep, that’s correct– 747. It’s been broken for 1200 years. Evidently, it was built for travelers going from Mesopotamia (Iraq) to Syria because there wasn’t really a lot going on in Jordan in the 700s. Travelers would just stay for 1 night, and it was free! You know how thetwinsontour feel about free stuff. This was built during the time Islam was spreading across the Middle East, Northern Africa, and into Spain. The Jordanian Government did some restoration to it in the 1970s when they realized they could make money from tourists.

Quseir Amra: Next “castle” was built as a Royal Retreat for the King, like a weekend house. This was built in the 700s as well. Pretty sure by the same king who built the hotel. It is one of 4 Unesco World Heritage sites in Jordan. So, the interesting thing here is the frescoes. These things are still brightly colored and amazingly intact for something created 1200 years ago. But, that isn’t even the most fascinating part. This king was a rule breaker–a real rebel. Everything painted inside it goes against the rules of Islam. Islam doesn’t believe in paintings. Nor do they allow depictions of humans or animals. But, these paintings feature naked people, hunters, the symbols of the Zodiac, animals, and oddly enough a guitar playing bear. It was amazing! The dry desert air has really helped to preserve it through the millenia. Oh, and there are some mosaic floors in there too which are only found in early Christian churches. Another thing that helped it survive through the years is that it was built in the middle of nowhere. I think its still pretty much in the middle of nowhere. If it were closer to civilization, it would have been looted and torn down.

Shaumari Wildlife Reserve: This is the wildlife portion of our day. There is a building where we were able to see a very friendly Reem Gazelle. This guy is lonely. He actually likes it when you tap on the glass and acts like he wants you to pet him. There were also some Arabian Oryx and some Hobaura Bustard bird things. They are all highly endangered. We opted to add on the optional hour long safari. thetwinsontour live by the motto “never skip a safari.”

So we saw some Arabian Oryx. Pretty sure they went extinct in 1925 in Jordan. They’ve currently got 125 living on the 22 km² reserve with capacity for 150. Since there’s such a small number of them, they’ve got some inbreeding issues, so they imported some from Saudi Arabia too. The above-mentioned Oryx at the visitor center are females that were impregnated with some imported sperm. Oryx are kinda shy and run from the safari jeep. Luckily my phone has a pretty good zoom! Interesting facts: the herd is led by the oldest female, only the alpha male gets to breed with the females (this also contributes to the inbreeding issues), males have darker, thicker horns than females, the head female leads the herd around using “maps” which are like Oryx trails, when they use the “maps” they all follow the oldest female in an orderly single file line. If another male wants to challenge the alpha male and loses, he gets kicked out of the herd for a few weeks. Like, he has to go on a Vision Quest and meditate and practice his skills before he can come back. When you see a solitary oryx, you know he is a Loser with a capital L.

We also got to see some Persian Onager which is part of the donkey family. They are also highly endangered, and 68 call this reserve home. I don’t remember many facts about them. But they were pretty far away from the road and they are also camera shy like the Oryx. In contrast to the oryx, if a male tries to challenge the alpha male, there are no second chances. It is live or die. And there is no escaping. If the losing Onager tries to flee to a life of solitary confinement, the rest of the herd will chase after him and stomp him to death. Evidently, they don’t like losers. Brutal. They are obviously a blood thirsty breed with no sense of humor.

But perhaps the highlight of the tour was when the guide (actually he’s the veterinarian, not a guide) showed us a couple of plants. I have no idea the name of it, but he picked some from the side of the road, rinsed it off with some water, and told us to eat it. It was actually quite tasty, like a salty leaf snack. He said Arabs eat it like potato chips, but the rest of the world uses it in salads. And the best part is we are still alive 6 hours later!

Wow today was a pretty eventful day because we also stopped for a quick photo stop of what our guide called a butchery. It’s actually a restaurant that serves fresh sheep kebabs. How fresh you ask? Well, they’ve all got a couple sheep tied up out front next to a hanging, bloody sheep skin, and a carcas of meat by the grill. Needless to say, we did not eat this because how can you do that when those poor little sheep are standing right next to you. Like do they know how limited their days are? And secondly, I’m not sure about the sanitary measures there and what that would do to my insides.

Quasr Al-Azraq was the last stop of the day. This one is actually a military fort built by the Romans in the first century and was also used by Lawrence of Arabia for one week in 1917. I’m going to tell you a secret. thetwinsontour love Roman Ruins! We do not love the supposedly classic film Lawrence of Arabia though. We tried to prepare for Jordan by watching Lawrence of Arabia, but it is one of the longest, most boring movies ever. Like, all it is is a bunch of men riding camels in the desert. You can fall asleep in the middle of it, wake up, and they are still just riding camels in the desert. And you will fall asleep during it. It’s inevitable. And we only made it through an hour and a half of the 4 hour movie. Big waste of $3.99 rental fee Amazon! They should pay me $3.99 for trying to watch that nonsense. Anyway, Lawrence spent a week here at this fort, but I don’t know if it was in the movie or not. The fort was 2 and 3 stories tall until an earthquake in 1927 reduced it to a single level. I’m probably wrong about this, but it’s one of 3 places in Jordan or maybe the world that still has its original stone doors. Anyways, the pair of stone doors at the entrance weigh one ton each and are fairly easy to push open. The 3 ton door in the back of the soldiers’ barracks doesn’t budge.

And I think that pretty much sums up our first day in Jordan. Tomorrow starts our official tour of Jordan.

Love,

thetwinsontour

I really intended to write one post for all 4 days in Macedonia. But, I got carried away writing about all that food, so you lucky ducks get to read more than one post about Macedonia. Yeah, you!

Today found thetwinsontour up and at ’em bright and early. Well, not too early. We just had extra time after breakfast since we weren’t leaving the Marriott until 9. You know what this means, right? Oh, yes! Thetwinsontour went out for a walk to take more selfies! You know we needed to say goodbye to our buddy, Alexander The Macedonian. We meant to take a walk and get some steps in, you know due to the aforementioned feasts of the day before. But with such glorious selfie opportunities, we didn’t make it very far at all.

Today we were headed to Stobi to visit one of thetwinsontour’s favorite things–Roman ruins! There was an Amphitheater built in the 2nd or 3rd century AD. There is also what I think was the oldest Christian church built in Macedonia. Anyways according to the picture of the sign it was originally built in the 4th century, so it’s pretty ancient. There were these fantastic tile floors from like the 400s. It is still an active archeological site, but not in October–this summer they located a prison, which they were able to identify due to shackles and bones. We didn’t get to see the shackles, nor the bones as they had been shipped off to a museum or something. We had a fantastic local guide, who taught herself English as a child by watching Sponge Bob Square Pants and Nickelodeon. Her English was flawless with a perfect accent. And she was still in high school! thetwinsontour applaud education and the young, so we tipped her doubly. Our tour manager told us she was bloody fantastic. She kept everyone’s interest (even those of us busy taking selfies.)

After the ruins, we headed to a winery. There are lots of grapes in the Balkans due to the Mediterranean climate. They had just finished the grape harvest, so there wasn’t much to see other than one worker hosing down the machinery. And the barrels full of wine. Evidently the barrels are expensive. And they only use each barrel for 2 years. Then they sell them. It wasn’t really clear for what purpose. It seems that even though the winery only uses the barrels for 2 years, they are still very usable and they sell them to individuals to keep there own personal wine collection in? That just seems like a lot of wine for personal consumption. And I don’t know, do you just dump it out of bottles into the barrel for storage? Or are you making your own wine from the grapes growing over the arbor in your front yard? Or are you opening a bar and using the barrels to make chic tables? So. Many. Questions.

The real purpose of our winery visit was to sample the wines. With a decadent lunch. We started with a lovely white wine, made with Georgian grapes to go with our salad and ayvar. It is a R’Kaciteli, and only costs $4 a bottle! It was so delicious, and yes a bottle did make it into my suitcase. And no, this does not mean that we are sharing. Then we had a red wine to go with our steak (this one was $12 a bottle, but we didn’t have room to bring a bottle home even though it was delicious.) And refills. For dessert we had a nice Moscato with our cheesecake. This was a nice Moscato, but not as bubbly and sweet as the one momma likes in the blue bottle. So, if you were keeping track, that was 3 glasses of wine. For lunch. Plus refills. That is like a yearly consumption total for thetwinsontour. But, damn, it was good. (And dang, I just realized I put the pictures of the winery in yesterday’s blog. Oops. I guess, they will just have to be in both.)

Luckily after this indulgence, we had a 3 hour bus ride. Interpret this as naptime. Especially after all that delicious wine. We were heading to Lake Ohrid, which is the number one tourist destination in Macedonia. For some inexplicable reason, Ohrid is pronounced Okrid. I don’t understand how that works at all, but it is what it is.

We got to Ohrid pronounced Okrid just in time for a sunset walk along the boardwalk. Let me tell you, my new phone takes amazing sunset pictures. Really amazing. Like better than real life amazing. Wait until you see the pictures that will hopefully be imbedded below. You will be like WOW! Anyways, I love my new Samsung S22 Ultra. So glad I upgraded before this trip.

The next morning, we were supposed to visit a place called the Bay of Bones. It is a reconstructed Viking Village built on stakes on the shore of the lake. Luckily, it was closed so we didn’t get to go walk among those houses. It did not sound very exciting or appealing to thetwinsontour. We just stopped for a quick photo stop from above. They call it the Bay of Bones because the divers that discovered the remains on the lake bottom found a big ole pile of animal bones there in the water.

Oh, Lake Ohrid is the second deepest lake in the world. I do remember that. It is fed by some underwater springs which reminds me of that time right before the third grade where my daddy took us fishing at the lake. My parents were in the john boat pulling me and my sister behind them in a rubber blow up raft and I was absolutely, completely terrified. Terrified because my daddy had told me that the lake was fed by underwater springs, and I could only picture a giant whirlpool that was going to suck me and that rubber raft down to the never-ending blackhole in the bottom of the lake– just like in Tarzan the Ape Man. Needless to say, that was the last time that we went to the lake. I digress. Bake to Lake Ohrid. It is super clear, and has an amazing visibility. And you can look across it and see Albania. There’s no commercial fishing allowed anymore because it got overfished and nearly wiped out the endemic fish species there. However, there’s a lot of locals fishing along the shore.

Wow, I guess we did a lot of stuff that day because we went to an ancient monastery; went on a boat ride; walked through the old town of Ohrid which also has a Roman Ampitheater. Seriously! More Roman Ruins! Do you know how much thetwinsontour love Roman Ruins? Well let me remind you, the answer is a lot! We love Roman Ruins a whole heck of a lot! But mostly the day was overshadowed by our afternoon activity. Guess what we did! We went shopping! Shopping for Ohrid Pearls! Shopping makes me happy! Ohrid Pearls are not natural pearls pulled out of clams, but rather they are handmade pearls. They are made from fish scales and a bunch of layers of a special glue. Oh, and they are beautiful! The ones we got have more of a mother of pearl sheen to them, but they do have traditional looking pearls too. And matching earrings (or several pairs). You just have to be careful not to squirt them with perfume. I guess it’s a good thing I haven’t bought a bottle of perfume since I bought Debbie Gibson’s Electric Youth perfume in 1989.

And there you have it–a couple of perfect, fun-filled, action packed days in Macedonia! Highly recommend! Five Stars!

Love,

thetwinsontour

OK, let’s try this Flikr thing again…

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAckdh