Penn State White Out

 This is a bonus post I am adding mostly so I can look at the content later.

We have been taking some trips to follow the Univ of Minnesota football team on the road. This year we flew with Cindy's brother Greg and Laura to see the Penn State game. The draw was the "white out" game. Once a year all Penn State fans dress in white and the effect in their stadium is dramatic. Here are a couple of photos and a video.

Before retirement we watched Fighting Hawk (Sioux) football. I think the attendance for games maxed out about 11,000. The University of Minnesota has a max capacity of 50,000 or so. Here is a list of football stadiums by size. 

Viking Herja

 

Our time on the Viking Herja has ended. The rest of the passengers did one last walk this morning and then will board a bus to take them to Zurich. We had a private ride in a fancy Mercedes town car to the same hotel. Until our quarantine ends we can parallel the rest of the group, but must pay for our own expenses. Cindy must have had a premonition because she paid for trip insurance. These costs should be covered. We can join those who extended their stay for the four extra days in Switzerland missing the first day (the glacier train). We will then have three days. 

Switzerland is interesting in that there are now no mask requirements. We are free to roam about unmasked on our own even though I am probably still communicative. Viking Tours has a stricter policy. Since we were fully vaccinated and both had a negative test the day before we left and I still got sick. I support the Vikings policy. We might walk about a bit tomorrow and see if we can find an outside location to have coffee and a meal, but I am still too tired today. We could have taken a flight home, but I can relax and read here as well as back in Minneapolis. I am not ready to face the long flight home for a few more days.

A few words about the ship (now that I am an expert). The ship really has two parts - a three story hotel on its side and a front section with dining area, kitchen, lounge, storage area, and front deck. The flat top has a very small walking track and plenty of nice chairs and tables. 

The boat is narrow and because it is so long the length gives it a strange appearance. As soon as you go through the first lock you understand the width issue. I have no ideas how the Captain gets the boat through the lock. The clearance was less than a foot (see Cindy touching side of the lock while we went through). All of the boats carrying materials other than people on the river look very similar - long and narrow. There are lots of boats. There are also lots of trains (our hotel now happens to be next to a set of tracks that probably has a train pass through at least every five minutes). The passenger trains have that sleek look and everything looks much newer than you would see in the U.S.  Europe obviously has worked out its transportation system in a different way. Perhaps the density plays a major role in the commitment to alternatives to autos and trucks.

Before we left I had visions of sitting on our little deck watching the boats and the houses and farms on the bans go by. We paid extra money for a room with these small decks rather than big windows. This was perhaps the one mistake our lack of experience at least relevant to this specific trip caused us to make. Most times the boat moved at night so there was little to actually see from the deck. When the boat did move during the day (e.g., the stretch with all of the castles), it turned out being more fun to watch from the upper deck. There was narration, food and beverages, and other folks with fancy cameras to compare notes.

Someone who reads my comments asked me for a recommendation regarding Viking Cruises. I will write something when I get home and feel a little more like sitting at the keyboard. I have the highest regard for the Vikings crew and system. Very professional and high quality. They were also very helpful in helping us arrange for our unique situation. We have to cover the additional costs, but they made the arrangements. I do think it important to understand what you will see. I wrote a rather capricious post earlier in this series titled Cathedrals and Castles. You may or may not find value in a stead diet of these visual experiences and the related narrations to but what interests you. We paid for one of the additional tours (Cindy visited a winery that took her into the fields) and that would have been more unique. I was starting to get ill and did not ago along. There is lots of history here dating back to the domination of the region by the Romans. Just understanding the length of history here in comparison to our U.S. perspective does make you think about cultural differences that may not hace crossed your mind. You either appreciate this perspective or you don’t. 

Hemingway’s Paris

 Being confined to quarters is kind of a bummer, but I am feeling pretty well. The view out the window can be great, but we mostly move at night. You can only watch so much International CNN. Still, all in all, we have decided this has to be labeled as a unique experience. We have travel insurance for this trip so there is no financial concern.

I have a few things I can write about and that seems a productive way to pass the time.

I have been trying to read a book targeting the area in which we are traveling. While we were last in Kauai, I tried to listen to Michener’s Hawaii. The audio version is 52 hours long. I usually listen to audiobooks before I go to sleep which often means I have to repeatedly back up because I fall asleep and lose track of the story. 

This trip I am reading Hemingway’s Paris. This book is the effort of a writer and a photographer attempted to capture Hemingway’s psyche and explain his writing method. The book is not uplifting as Hemingway while artistically gifted and driven had more than his share of demons. He married, had a child, and then divorced resulting in a melancholy that followed him throughout the rest of his life.

As I said earlier, the book combines text and black and white photos. I was able to take many similar photos. 

A favorite Hemingway haunt. 

These boxes line sections of the Seine. Individuals own these boxes and sell old books and posters. If you know. What you are doing you may find a valuable original. 

COVID got me

 Cindy and I have been able to avoid COVID until this morning. I have had a deep cough. I used a self test kit two days ago and generated a negative reading. Symptoms (the cough) have grown a little worse. I had already decided not to attend this morning’s outing because it is raining and I did think I would like walking in a cold rain. Cindy convinced me to take the test the boat makes available (the one with the deeper sinus swab) and this came back positive. 

Cindy is still negative. It would have worked out better if the self test had come out positive because we could just isolate while we were on the boat. We had extended our trip by four days to spend some time not on the boat in Switzerland. If all goes well, we now must stay one day in a hotel and the find a way to catch up and connect with the tour group. I want to delay the long plane flight until I feel better.

A short note. The Pfizer vaccine was developed in Mainz, Germany. This happens to be where we are. As part of the walking tour that included the museum, the guide identified famous residents past and present. We learned that the researchers working with BioNTech (Ozlem Tureci and Ugar Sahin) responsible for the Pfizer vaccine live and work here. Ironic. No complaints regard the vaccine. So far I am fairly comfortable.