{"id":2,"date":"2016-05-18T21:20:45","date_gmt":"2016-05-19T01:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2016-08-07T01:50:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-07T05:50:00","slug":"front-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to Our 2016 Travel Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

P.J. Gardner<\/a>, May 25, 2016<\/p>\n

In June and July 2016, P.J. and Arjan took another ridiculously long vacation\u2014this time, for 50 days.<\/p>\n

Our trip this year was more or less the reverse of our trip in 2014. In 2014, we took a 17-day Holland America Line cruise<\/span><\/strong> called\u00a0\u201cThe Voyage of the Vikings<\/a>\u201d from Boston to Amsterdam on the ms Veendam, followed by travel around Northern\u00a0Europe<\/span><\/strong> for another 23 days.<\/p>\n

This year, we are spending a month in Northern\u00a0Europe<\/span><\/strong>, followed by an 18-day Holland America Line cruise<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0called \u201cViking Passage<\/span><\/strong>\u201d from Rotterdam back\u00a0home\u00a0to Boston on the ms Rotterdam.<\/p>\n

\"rotterdam1-310x200\"<\/p>\n

First, we flew to London<\/span><\/strong> on June 1. \u00a0After a few days in London, we took the train to Edinburgh, Scotland<\/span><\/strong>, and then rented a house in Doune, Scotland,<\/strong> for five days. \u00a0After spending about ten days touring Scotland, we flew to Berlin, Germany<\/span><\/strong>. After a few days in Berlin, we took\u00a0the train to Rotterdam, Arjan\u2019s home town in the Netherlands<\/span><\/strong>, where we visited some of Arjan\u2019s lifelong\u00a0friends. After a few days in Rotterdam<\/span><\/strong> and a day in Amsterdam<\/span><\/strong>, we rented a car and drove to Friesland<\/span><\/strong>, in the north of Holland, where we rented a house and visited with more friends and family.<\/p>\n

Scurrying back to Rotterdam<\/span><\/strong>, we caught our Viking Passage cruise on July 2. \u00a0Our first stop was Bergen, Norway<\/span><\/strong>. \u00a0Then we sailed to the Shetland Islands<\/span><\/strong>, visited three places in Iceland<\/span><\/strong>, spent a\u00a0day cruising<\/span> Prins Christian Sund<\/span><\/strong> at the southern tip of Greenland, and stopped at two places in Greenland<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span>Back in North America, we visited\u00a0St. John\u2019s, Newfoundland<\/span><\/strong>, and Halifax, Nova Scotia<\/span><\/strong>, before arriving back home in Boston<\/span><\/strong> on July 20.<\/p>\n

In our previous travel blogs for other trips, posting blog entries\u00a0has been a bit backwards from what you\u2019d expect, P.J. being the professional writer and Arjan being a non-native speaker of English. On past\u00a0trips, P.J. gave up writing most of the\u00a0blog posts to Arjan, who turned out to be a very entertaining and articulate travel writer. \u00a0When we travel, P.J., who loves landscape photography, whips out (actually lugs around) her camera and tries to capture each place we visit to illustrate the blogs with images.<\/p>\n

This time, we alternated creating blog posts while we were in Europe, but once we were on the cruise, Arjan did most of the writing. \u00a0P.J. kept taking pictures, but because of the limits to internet access, most\u00a0of the images had to wait until the trip was over.<\/p>\n

Again, we tried to update this blog as our travel progressed\u2014whenever we had internet access and time\u2014but we are still not finished. There is usually a lag in posting our photos, because processing photos on the road takes too much time.\u00a0Keep coming back. We\u2019ll let you know when we are done.<\/p>\n

To start at the beginning of our 2016 trip blog, go here:<\/p>\n