My Travel Blog

[anchorage1977]

Hi folks. I just added Barrow to my travel blog. I took the trip in 2006 through Alaska Airlines Vacations and had a great time for two days.

 

 

 

Check out my post and photos at:

 

 

 

 

http://happyalaskan.blogspot.com/2009/02/barrow-tacos-on-tundra.html

Or you can visit happyalaskan.blogspot.com and look at other destinations as well.

 

 

 

Happy Travels!

[anchorage1977]

My cousin and I went to Nagasaki for a day last year and LOVED IT! See our photos and story on my travel blog:

 

 

 

http://happyalaskan.blogspot.com/2009/02/nagasaki-temples-new-and-old.html

Or go to happyalaskan.blogspot.com to seach for other destinations we've discovered.

 

 

 

Happy Travels!

[anchorage1977]

My mom and I went to Longyearbyen (on Spitsbergen in Norway) with in August 2007 on Holland America's Prinsendam and LOVED IT!

 

 

 

Here is a link to my travel blog with our photos and story...

 

 

 

http://happyalaskan.blogspot.com/2009/02/spitsbergen-edge-of-planet.html

Or you can find it at happyalaskan.blogspot.com

Happy Travels!

[kaisatsu]

My mom and I went to Longyearbyen (on Spitsbergen in Norway) with in August 2007 on Holland America's Prinsendam and LOVED IT!

Here is a link to my travel blog with our photos and story...

http://happyalaskan.blogspot.com/2009/02/spitsbergen-edge-of-planet.html

Happy Travels!

Thanks for sharing! Your photos reminded me just how much we would loooove to go back! Svalbard is such an amazing and strangely beautiful place.

 

You mentioned that one of your photos looked like Barrow. Do the two have similar landscapes/climates? My sister lives in Wasilla, so we're continuously comparing Norway and Alaska.

 

-Meg

[anchorage1977]

I went to Cadiz, Spain for the first time last summer aboard Holland America's Rotterdam and LOVED IT! I've collected some of our photos and posted a travel blog of our time at:

 

 

 

http://happyalaskan.blogspot.com/2009/02/cadiz-spain-worth-week.html

Or you can visit http://happyalaskan.blogspot.com for posts on other fun destinations.

 

 

 

Happy Travels

[mountainmare]

Thank you--we'll be in Cadiz in about a month!!!

[retiring soon]

Hi! I enjoyed your photos. We loved Cadiz too ~ such a great place to walk around in. That garden was beautiful & people were fishing from the wall when we visited in Oct. on the Emerald Princess. There were some great little shops there too with cheap wine & lovely pastries. We're glad we stayed there instead of taking the long trip to Seville. Thanks.

~Jo~ :)

[anchorage1977]

For fans of these, I just posted a new photo album, youtube video and write up on Kusadasi & Ephesus on my travel blog. My friend and I had a great time sailing aboard Holland America's Rotterdam last May and this was a huge highlight.

 

http://happyalaskan.blogspot.com/2009/02/ephesus-kusadasi-turkey.html

Or for other fun and exotic cities, you can click http://happyalaskan.blogspot.com and search for other posts.

 

Happy Travels!

[chrismch]

Just went to your link to wiki and read of all the sites. Which ones did you see and what did you like best? Was there a tourist office where you could pick up a city map of what's what?

[anchorage1977]

Just went to your link to wiki and read of all the sites. Which ones did you see and what did you like best? Was there a tourist office where you could pick up a city map of what's what?

 

We started by buying a ticket to the hop on hop off double decker bus. I don't know how I felt about that... it was affordable and allowed us to get the lay of the land in about an hour. But the audio tour was pretty hard to deal with. It was recorded using GPS and the narration didn't always line up to the sights well.

 

The only notable things that we saw was the Plaza de la Espana with the Constitution monument, the parks and forts along the sea wall, and the plaza with the cathedral. That took us about 4-5 hours of slow walking and photographing. We didn't hit the beaches for sun bathing, seek out the other plazas (although we saw some from the bus), nor did we do tapas before siesta. We ate so much for breakfast on the ship that day, lunch wasn't really in the plan - what a mistake!

 

Next time I'd starve myself before arriving so I could take in all the sweets and seafood tapas. Oh well, live and learn!

[Sunflash]

Great pictures. We are heading there in May on the Crown and were wondering about just spending the day there. After seeing your pics and your post, I think that's what we'll do. Thanks.

[khuff7]

Thanks for sharing, great pics.

[kwk1955]

Great pictures, and info. Thanks !

[Koshlong]

Now I'm even more eager to get there! Thanks.

[anchorage1977]

Great pictures. We are heading there in May on the Crown and were wondering about just spending the day there. After seeing your pics and your post, I think that's what we'll do. Thanks.

 

I'm glad to hear it. As I tried to make clear in my blog post, I get the reason so many folks want to see Seville. But with the limited time the shore excursions offer in Seville due to the length of the transit, I strongly feel you will appreciate staying in Cadiz more. We had a very full day of content given how nice the weather was and we didn't have to was 2 hours each way on a bus for shore ex.

 

I hope you have as good a time as we had!

 

Happy travels.

[anchorage1977]

Thanks for sharing! Your photos reminded me just how much we would loooove to go back! Svalbard is such an amazing and strangely beautiful place.

 

You mentioned that one of your photos looked like Barrow. Do the two have similar landscapes/climates? My sister lives in Wasilla, so we're continuously comparing Norway and Alaska.

 

-Meg

 

Hi Meg! You know, we were struck by how little Alaska and Norway had in common geographically. Due to their warm ocean currents from the south, mainland norway has zero tidewater glaciers, while Alaska has them everywhere. In parts of Alaska our mountains are also significantly larger than in Norway. However Spitsbergen (Svalbard) is very Alaska like. It has huge ice fields feeding many many tidewater glaciers and an overlap of marine mammals. The difference is that Spitsbergen is at around 78 degrees north latitude, which is way farther north than even Barrow, AK.

 

Longyearbyen was also remarkably civilized. There's plenty of contrast with Alaska there! We are, em... uh... not.

[Cardex]

Enjoyed your photos!

We also loved Cadiz - it was our favorite port from our cruise last year.

See the link below for our blog with a few of our photos of Cadiz and our Med cruise.

[Atlanta_Cruiser]

Thank you for taking time to post this. I enjoyed all of it. The gardens were beautiful as well as the architecture. I will be going to Cadiz in April on my first transatlantic cruise (Noordam) and look forward to seeing some of these sites.

 

Cheers,

Atlanta_Cruiser

 

PS: I tried several times to post a comment but your site woudl not load the word for me to type for verification. FYI.

 

 

I went to Cadiz, Spain for the first time last summer aboard Holland America's Rotterdam and LOVED IT! I've collected some of our photos and posted a travel blog of our time at:

 

 

 

http://happyalaskan.blogspot.com/2009/02/cadiz-spain-worth-week.html

 

 

 

Or you can visit http://happyalaskan.blogspot.com for posts on other fun destinations.

 

 

 

Happy Travels

[anchorage1977]

I'm writing a series of posts on my travel blog about my 2 days in Beijing from last year while on a Holland America cruise. They include photos, video and various stories we came away with in April 2008.

http://happyalaskan.blogspot.com

Stop by and see what you think - and feel free to write if you have questions.

Happy Travels!

[kaisatsu]

We're actually cruising Alaska this coming summer with my sister and our parents, and I've been wondering what to expect. I've been told by friends who've cruised the Alaska panhandle and then visited us here that the landscape around southern Norway (mostly the overland journey between Oslo and Bergen) kept reminding them of their Alaska trip.

 

So how is Alaska uncivilized, compared to Svalbard? :) Do you wear your snow boots and carry your polar bear rifles into the restaurants instead of leaving them outside?

[anchorage1977]

We're actually cruising Alaska this coming summer with my sister and our parents, and I've been wondering what to expect. I've been told by friends who've cruised the Alaska panhandle and then visited us here that the landscape around southern Norway (mostly the overland journey between Oslo and Bergen) kept reminding them of their Alaska trip.

 

So how is Alaska uncivilized, compared to Svalbard? :) Do you wear your snow boots and carry your polar bear rifles into the restaurants instead of leaving them outside?

 

I'm impressed you were able to find the new thread... they have messed up almost all of my posts related to ports and thrown them all into this one post where nobody can find them.

 

Civilized Longyearbyen - they have a wine cellar with tens of thousands of bottles of wine! If only I could find that in my little town. And yes, they are very good at kicking off their shoes in Spitzbergen before going into any building - including restaurants, the museum or shops. We solve that problem here by covering our floors with sawdust and peanut husks :)

 

Southern Norway does have non-tidewater glaciers, and abundant fjords so the similarity with southeast Alaska is there. Perhaps it's best to think of the Norwegian Fjords and Misty Fjords around Ketchikan as being similar.