20261022 Thursday, October 22, 2026. Panoramic Madrid Tour

20261022 Thursday, October 22, 2026. Panoramic Madrid Tour

Still adjusting to jet lag, we found ourselves awake at 5am so getting up for the 7 a.m. breakfast was not an issue.  The Hyatt Regency Hespira breakfast buffet was pretty basic for a business class hotel, offering a full selection of breads, pastries, cereals, fruit, and basic hot entrees (scrambled eggs, finger potatoes, tomatoes, beans, fried rice, and English bacon) but no custom egg/omelette station or other exotic hot entrees.  

The coffee offered at the tables was terrible, tasting like poorly made Folgers instant coffee, but there was an automated espresso drink maker to save the day.  They also had high-tech KitchenAid toasters that baffled a lot of guests because they had a button you had to push to have the toaster automatically lower the slices into the slots and a sliding lever that adjusted to browning.  Most people tried to use the lever to lower the slices and gave up, assuming the toasters were broken.

We discovered that the window in our room opens into an airshaft courtyard with no view of the city.

We got to meet up with the full Viking Hemming Pre-cruise Madrid extension group.  There are a total of 12 travelers, all from the US, and most are Viking veterans like ourselves.  We were loaded up into a large Sprinter-based mini bus with about 18 seats, so there was room to spread out, and it was comfortable.  

Our tour took us around the major tourist places of interest, and our guide, David, was very informative.  The driver even took to driving us around some of the traffic circles so we could see all sides of the monuments at the center and buildings around the major traffic circles.  Among these is one dedicated to Christopher Columbus. 

Several others have monumental fountains depicting various Roman gods and goddesses.  We also drove past many key museums, including the National Archaeological Museum and Prado National Art Gallery.  Madrid is full of museums. 
The bus then took us into the oldest part of Madrid, where we transitioned into a walking tour starting at Mayor Square.  Here, we had a cappucino and Coke Zero while relaxing and people-watching on the square under a café’s sidewalk umbrellas and had a bathroom break.  

From Mayor’s Square, we walked to the Mercado de San Miguel, a major tourist market featuring all sorts of food and local goods vendors.  David pointed out Madrid’s Calamari sandwiches, which are a local specialty.  

The final stop on our walking tour was the Royal Palace of Madrid and the Almudena Cathedral complex.  

We reboarded our bus and then had a guided tour of the Prado National Art Gallery.  We learned that Prado is Spanish for Meadow, and that it was named that because at the time it was established, it was simply a meadow.  It was here that we discovered David was quite an art historian and fluent in the history of Spain and the arts.  He took us on a journey of discovery of Spanish art as it evolved from the personal collection of Spanish monarchs of the 16th and 17th centuries, through the Renaissance, Baroque, and Romantic periods.  The Prado is dedicated to these eras, while paintings of the Impressionists and beyond are at the Reina Sofia National Museum of Modern Art.  

David gave us hidden insights into the technology and symbolism embedded within Tintoretto’s The Washing of the Feet (the introduction of perspective yields a picture that literally changes depending on where you view the painting).

In Velázquez’s Las Meninas, what appears at first to be a portrait of young Princess Margarita is actually a self-portrait that turns the subject into the viewer through the lens of a hidden mirror.  

David’s passion for art and depth of knowledge were quite evident, but most of it was way over our heads.  But it gave us a new appreciation for the importance of these works and this collection.  

The tour officially ended as we exited the Prado with the option of further self-exploration in the neighborhood of the Prado or taking the bus back to the hotel.  We opted to head back on the bus for a desperately needed nap, lest we find ourselves collapsed on a museum gallery bench after closing hours. 

After our naps, we wandered about on the streets and found ourselves people-watching in Plaza de Olavide, which was full of young families and children at play.  It does not appear that Spain is suffering from the same population contraction that many other countries like the USA and Japan are experiencing.  While we were hoping to find a tapas restaurant there, almost all did not open for food service until after 8:30 p.m.  

We did find a place very close to the hotel called El Yate that was open and serving food.  We chose to sit inside as it was getting a bit cool outside with temperatures in the 50s as the sun’s rays were lowering in the sky.  We had an excellent selection of tapas starting with deep-fried Portobello mushroom wedges with garlic mayonnaise and grilled octopus served with grilled zucchini topped with foie gras.  The restaurant also provided complimentary bread and olives.  We also had a local lager beer which was refreshing and light.  We made the mistake of ordering too much food because we had to struggle to make a dent in the last two courses, which were Spanish broken eggs and Iberian ham served on French fries, and chopped sirloin meat balls called Chuppa Chups, served with shoestring potatoes and a sweet mustard sauce.  The food was all excellent and at 66 Euros including two beers, was an excellent value for being right next to the hotel.  

We retired to our beds nearly in food comas to prepare for an early and long day of activities tomorrow.  

20261020-1021 Tuesday, October 20, 2026 to Wednesday, October 21, 2026; Heading to Spain and Portugal

20261020-1021 Tuesday, October 20, 2026 to Wednesday, October 21, 2026; Heading to Spain and Portugal

We are heading off on another adventure.  This time, we are heading to Spain and Portugal to do a Viking River Cruise on Portugal’s River of Gold, the Douro River.  This runs through the Iberian Peninsula from North Central Spain to Portugal’s Atlantic coast.  We will bookend the river cruise with a pre-cruise extension in Madrid, and post-cruise extension to Santiago de Compostela.  

The getting to and from these destinations is always the least enjoyable part of any trip, but at least we had beautiful fall weather for the start of this trip.  We have a red-eye flight from Seattle to Madrid, changing flights in London’s Heathrow airport after an overnight flight.  To get to the airport in time for the 8:20 p.m. departure from Seattle, we actually have to leave Coupeville at 2:15 p.m.  The airport shuttle only runs every 2 hours, but since we are flying business class, we got to relax in the British Airways lounge before the flight and got an early dinner, drinks, and snacks. 

The British Airways lounge in the South Satellite is adjacent to the SEA Lounge shared by several other airlines, but the British Airways lounge was much less crowded and much nicer.  We had used the SEA Lounge on our last international flight, and it was crowded, run down, and the food was not good.  

We had Viking Air arrange our flights.  We were booked on British Airways via American Airlines, and when we tried to check on seat assignments, we were unpleasantly surprised to see that British Airways was asking for $160 per person for advanced seat assignments even in business class. After contacting Viking Air, Viking Air did get us seat assignments for the Seattle to London flight segment at no extra cost to us, but we had to wait until this morning to get seat assignments for the London to Madrid flight.  We did not get a choice of seats, but at least we got seated together.  This was the first time we have ever had any issue with getting seat assignments for flights.  This appears to be unique to British Airways.  On our return flights, which will be on American Airlines, we were able to get seat assignments in advance for free.  

The flight from Seattle to London passed over Canada and Greenland overnight.  The business class was only about half full in the 777-300 jet.  This worked out for the better because Ben’s seat 16F was broken and would not recline flat.  Fortunately, both the pods in front and behind him were unoccupied, so when the time came to sleep, he just scooted back one seat.  The flight had a full dinner service shortly after takeoff, and a breakfast service about 90 minutes before landing.  Ben watched Disclosure Day, while Janet worked her way through the Lord of the Rings series.  

The flight was fairly smooth, and our seats were situated over the wing box— near the center of gravity and strongest part of the plane.  Even with lie-flat seats, it is hard to really sleep well on planes due to the noise, and Ben checked his O2 saturation with his Apple watch, and it read only 92%, and the watch had recognized the reading was taken at high altitude.  

The 777 must not pressurize the cabin as much as the 787 Dreamliner, so passengers are essentially being subjected to high altitude.  Based on the O2 saturation, it was close to what we had encountered in Tibet.  While Ben had laid in the bed “sleeping” for 5 hours, his Apple watch only gave him credit for 2 hours of actual sleep and gave him a LOW sleep score.  But for a 9-hour flight, we were comfortable, well-fed, and entertained, and didn’t have to hobble off the plane stiff and in pain.  

Although the flight was routed through London, we were able to avoid having to pay for the UK’s new electronic Travel Visa because we did not have to go through UK immigration with our single-ticket travel, but we did have to have our passports and faces scanned as we passed from our arrival gate to our continuing flight gate.  
We had a couple of hours to kill, but fortunately, we had access to the British Airways lounge, where we had lunch.  This lounge was a little more crowded and busy than the one in Seattle, but still well appointed and with good food and beverages.  

The flight from London to Madrid was on an A320 that was basically configured as a single cabin, so business class was just the first 12 rows where the middle seats were blocked out.  We unfortunately got assigned seats in front of the exit row that did not recline, and the passenger in front of Ben shoved his seat back as soon after takeoff as he could, and left it reclined for the duration of the flight.  It was fortunate that it was only a 2-1/2-hour flight.

We arrived in Madrid after dark, so we didn’t get to see much on the drive in from the airport.  We were greeted by a driver holding a Viking placard and had a private transfer to the Hyatt Regency Hespira in downtown Madrid.  As we approached the hotel, the entrance was blocked by police vehicles and security.  

We had to get dropped off on the corner and wait for a dignitary to exit the hotel and be on his way in his motorcade.  One of the officers said it was the President.  When we checked into the hotel minutes later, the staff said they were not allowed to disclose who the dignitary was.  We arrived after 9 p.m., so had missed the Madrid walking tour and talk that was scheduled by Viking from 4:30-5:30 p.m.  One surprise is just inside the main hotel lobby entrance is a steep staircase with no ramp for luggage or wheelchairs. 

We checked into our room (103), which was nicely appointed but a small room, typical for downtown metropolitan hotels and not much larger than our cruise ship veranda staterooms.  

Breakfast is included, and tomorrow we will have a “Panoramic Madrid” tour during the day and a Flamenco Dinner experience in the evening.  But for tonight, we’re just going to sleep like logs in the comfortable hotel bed after a hot shower.  

20260916 Wednesday, September 16, 2026 Disembarkation and Onward Home

20260916 Wednesday, September 16, 2026 Disembarkation and Onward Home

Princess has a new program for passengers who have TSA PreCheck or Global Entry status, which allows them to skip going through Canadian customs and immigration in the cruise ship terminal.  So-called “Direct to Airport” passengers were gathered together in the Explorer’s Lounge, where they were given excursion stickers matching their luggage group, and then dispatched in batches to load buses and head to the airport.  

Vancouver Convention Center next to Canada Place from our window.

The ship docked at the Canada Place wharf, which is conveniently situated on the waterfront, but because street traffic in Vancouver is bad, it took nearly an hour to get from the ship to the airport.  Instead of getting dropped off at the curb, we entered by some loading docks and then walked into a large holding area where our luggage was segregated by luggage group tags.  We had no trouble finding and collecting our bags before then heading off to the airline check-in counters.

Although we skipped customs and immigration in the cruise ship terminal, we still had to go through US Customs and Immigration to get to our Seattle-bound flight.  Fortunately, there was a Nexus/Global Entry lane which was empty, so we pretty much walked straight through.  All we had to do was stop briefly and look into a camera on an automated kiosk, and then on to an agent who asked if we had anything to declare.  We got waved through after simply saying “no”.  

We were at the boarding gate before 11am where we ran into a pair of women we had been seated with during the one dinner we had with reservations during the cruise.  They were heading to Arizona via Seattle, but were on the flight departing before ours.  We were surprised to see our flight was departing just one hour after theirs, so Alaska Airlines must be running these flights very frequently during the week shuttling passengers between YVR and SEA. 

The excellent weather has been following us all the way from Alaska as we arrived in Vancouver with beautiful blue skies and temperatures in the 60s.  

The flight from Vancouver headed west over Vancouver Island and then turned south over the Olympic Peninsula, which isn’t as familiar to us as the terrain over the I-5 Corridor and Cascade foothills.  Hood Canal and all the inlets and waterways of southern Puget Sound create quite a complex web, but we were able to recognize the twin spans of the Tacoma Narrows bridges and the huge and glorious Mt. Rainier as the jet began its turn to the north for its approach into Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Unlike Denali, Mt. Rainier was completely visible with nothing but blue skies all around.  

Since we had cleared US Customs and Immigration in Vancouver, we were able to walk off the plane and collect our bags without delay and actually were able to catch an earlier Whidbey Sea-Tac shuttle, getting us home 90 minutes earlier.  It’s quite unusual for us to be able to make it home during daylight hours and in time for dinner.  After all the expensive meals in Alaska, it was comforting to be able to grab dinner at Sonic for just $7 each.  It’s good to be home.  

20260915 Tuesday, September 15, 2026; At Sea

20260915 Tuesday, September 15, 2026; At Sea

The ship’s clocks turned forward an hour from Alaska time to Pacific time, although our smartphones had automatically made that change in the late evening because we had left the cellular on instead of keeping our phones on airplane mode.  

Morning trivia yielded a tie between us and Bob’s team. We each had perfect scores of 20/20.  The tie breaker was how many cruise ships are there in the world.  Ben asked the host if that included river cruise ships and he said ALL cruise ships.  We guessed way high at 2000 thinking there were lots of small river and local cruise ships besides the major ocean-going cruise ships, but the answer he was looking for was 350, which is the number of major ocean-going cruise ships.  Viking Cruises alone operates 89 river cruise ships, and according to Google, there are more than 1000 currently operating river cruise ships including regional small operators.  But we only missed out on eyeglass pouches.  

After trivia, we had a leisurely late breakfast/brunch in the buffet.  

Ben got in one last fitness center run so we could pack up everything in our suitcases once again.  

Instead of lunch, we enjoyed the one afternoon tea that was offered during this itinerary.  We were surprised that there wasn’t that big of a turnout for the tea, but the service and scones were very good.  

We participated in the 4 p.m. afternoon trivia, which was won again by Bob and Neil with 19/20 and a tie breaker of what was the shortest completion time for the NYC Marathon.  They got it to within one minute with the actual time being 2 hrs, 4 minutes and 59 seconds.  

The ship has experienced remarkable sunny and calm weather as it cruises down the Queen Charlotte Strait and Johnstone Strait between Vancouver Island and the Mainland.  There have been a few whale spottings, including one just before the afternoon trivia.  It was very scenic sailing past uncountable small islands and rocky outcroppings to either side of the ship.  The Holland America Zaandam followed us and behind her was the Coral Princess a couple miles behind. 

Zaandam stalking us through Queen Charlotte Strait.

Remote island in Queen Charlotte Strait

Inside Passage between Alaska and Washington

One significant difference in the scenery between Alaska and these waters between Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland is evidence of logging and forestry management.  There are clearly areas that have been previously clear-cut and replanted, delineated by geographic patches with different maturity of trees evident.  There are also sites on the edge of the water where logs are skidded from the hillsides and rafted up on the water for transport to distant mills.  

Zaandam and Coral Princess

Night fell as the ship got past Campbell River, and we had dinner, which featured prime rib and shrimp-crusted Alaskan coho salmon.  Janet also gave the French onion soup a second try, and this time it was piping hot and to her satisfaction.  And of course, they had to have baked Alaska for dessert tonight.  

After brushing our teeth one last time with our electric toothbrushes, we put our suitcases out for collection.

There was an evening music trivia that we participated in where the host again played the songs without editing out lyrics that give away the song titles, but it was still challenging enough.  We bombed on any songs that are from after the 1980s, and there were quite a few from the  2000s and 2010s that threw us.  The team that won pretty much got a perfect score.  There are clearly pop music savants on board.  

The Princess Theater showtime featured something called the Princess World Orchestra.  This is a program where the music director has gathered all the musicians from around the ship onto the stage so in addition to the production show band, there are the club singers and instrumentalists that perform in the lounges and atrium.  They did a medley of music supposedly from around the world including Spain, Brazil, Cuba, and Ireland.  The lounge singer who was the lead vocal was heavy on Gloria Estefan’s songs, but she had trouble stirring up the audience participation she wanted with the theater being sparcely occupied.  We were at the 9:30 p.m. show, which was probably past a lot of people’s bedtimes.  

After the show, we popped up to the buffet to grab a snack.  The buffet closed down at 10 p.m., so all that is available between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. are some small sandwiches, tortilla chips with bland salsa and guacamole, and small cups with a selection of cheeses and dried fruit.  We miss not having an International Cafe on this ship.  

On the way back to the room, we dropped in on the comedian AJ Jamal, and enjoyed the last half of his act, which was the adults-only version of his act.  He was funny and really connected well with the audience in the packed Explorer’s Lounge.  

Zaandam and Coral Princess stuck with us through the night.

Tomorrow we disembark at 9 a.m. and head home.  This has been a short cruise for us.  Although this is our fifth Alaska cruise, we have found each one unique.  We were particularly lucky with the weather at this end-of-the-season cruise.  It has been unseasonably warm and sunny, and the crew has been constantly remarking how unusual this has been.  We were also pleasantly surprised by how scenic the sea day turned out with the ship entering into the Queen Charlotte Strait and narrow Johnstone Strait during the daylight hours.  Cruising into Vancouver through the Inside Passage is vastly more interesting than cruises based in Seattle, which stay as much as 20 miles off the west coast of Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland as soon as they exit the Strait of Juan de Fuca and leave Puget Sound.

There was minimal adjustment to cruising without the Plus or Premier package drinks, and the ocean-view stateroom worked out fine, except for the Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier days when it would have been nice to be on our own balcony for those days, but because we had nice rain-free weather for both of those days, everything worked out fine.  And Janet really liked the convenience of being so close to the aft elevator lobby, fitness center, public bathrooms, and Explorer’s Lounge.  All were just steps from our doorway.  

Having most recently completed a Viking Ocean cruise from Norway to Iceland, we would have to say the food on Viking is definitely better overall.  While the majority of the meals we had on this cruise were OK to decent, there was really nothing that wowed us.  We really missed the quality cookies and gelato from the Viking cruise, but that was also a much more expensive cruise per day.  As an alternative to a business class return flight from Anchorage to Seattle, this cruise was an excellent value and enjoyable.  

We especially were impressed by the Captain’s Circle and Most Sailed Passengers receptions, which were very nice, especially after being so terribly disappointed with our experiences on the Sun Princess last Christmas.  These smaller Panamax ships still in the Princess fleet do have their advantages when it comes to service and a more personal touch.  

We do have another Princess cruise already booked for Christmas 2027 in the Mexican Riviera, but also made a future cruise deposit on this cruise which is fully refundable and good for on-board spending credit of up to $150 per person.  We’re sure another Princess cruise itinerary will pop up that will lure us back within the year.  We hope they will expand their Africa itineraries, although the Iran war and other conflicts in the Middle East do certainly limit what can be done there.