Tuesday, April 22, 2014

airplane food


someone once asked me, so do you photograph everything.  This wasn't the first time I have been asked that question... Well...the things I photograph help me to remember what I eat during the trip of course.

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This was from our KLM flight from Basel to Amsterdam, one hour and twenty minute flight.  Cheese sandwich, a sandwiched made with cheese, mustard and mayonnaise.  This was our second breakfast, first breakfast started 3am.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Cheese Cake – GCCL – River Cruise

Food images from our trip with Grand Circle Cruise on M/S River Melody Romance of the Rhine and Mosel Trip March 2014
Cheese Cake
Cheese Cake

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

MS Melody at Willemstad – GCCL – River Cruise

MS Melody at Willemstad – GCCL – River Cruise


MS Melody at Willemstad.
MS Melody at Willemstad.

Grand Circle Cruise – Romance of the Rhine and Mosel Trip March 2014

Monday, April 14, 2014

BLT Sandwich – GCCL – River Cruise

Food images from our trip with Grand Circle Cruise on M/S River Melody Romance of the Rhine and Mosel Trip March 2014
B.L.T. Sandwich - Bacon lettuce and tomato on white toast acocompied by chicken skewer, coleslaw and potato wedges.
B.L.T. Sandwich – Bacon lettuce and tomato on white toast accompanied by chicken skewer, coleslaw and potato wedges.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Naegel Patissier – GCCL -River Cruise

Food images from our trip with Grand Circle Cruise on M/S River Melody Romance of the Rhine and Mosel Trip March 2014
Naegel Patissier Traiteur in Strasbourg, Germany
Naegel Patissier Traiteur in Strasbourg, France


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www.jennylunde.com




www.jennylunde.comwww.jennylunde.com


www.jennylunde.com
www.jennylunde.com 

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Grilled Salmon – GCCL – River Cruise

Food images from our trip with Grand Circle Cruise on M/S River Melody Romance of the Rhine and Mosel Trip March 2014
Grilled Salmon "A la Flamande Served with Fresh lemon, asparagus, parsley potato and creamy mussels.


Grilled Salmon “A la Flamande Served with Fresh lemon, asparagus, parsley potato and creamy mussels. 



Friday, April 11, 2014

Desire de Lille, Antwerp – GCCL


Chocolate Covered Waffle

Grand Circle Cruise - Romance of the Rhine & Mosel Trip March 2014
Desire de Lille, Antwerp

Food images from our trip with Grand Circle Cruise on M/S River Melody Romance of the Rhine and Mosel Trip March 2014
Grand Circle Cruise - Romance of the Rhine & Mosel Trip March 2014

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Breakfast on MS Melody – Romance of the Rhine & Mosel

www.jennylunde.com

Breakfast on MS Melody – Romance of the Rhine and Mosel



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Some of our Breakfast pictures from our trip with Grand Circle Cruise on M/S River Melody Romance of the Rhine & Mosel Trip March 2014.


www.jennylunde.com

A list of Daily Breakfast Specials that is served in the dinning room each day.   Some of these are served more than once during your trip.

French Toast
Egg Florentine
Toast Hawaii
American Pancake
Sausage in Puff Pastry
Crepe Stuffed with Cottage Cheese





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GCCL - Willemstad pastries


 images from our GCCL river cruise trip
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Bakery in the little town of Willemstad 
 

De Echte Bakker

There were many different baked goods to pick from for a very small town.  Baked Bread displayed in the window for all to see.
We Picked Pecan-noten, which was very tasty, light and fluffy.  The Gevulde koek was heavy and dry.  We didn't eat half of it.  It was more like a cookie.  Should have picked the Amandelbroodjes.  
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www.jennylunde.com








Breakfast on MS Melody – Romance of the Rhine & Mosel

www.jennylunde.com

Breakfast on MS Melody – Romance of the Rhine and Mosel



www.jennylunde.com
Some of our Breakfast pictures from our trip with Grand Circle Cruise on M/S River Melody Romance of the Rhine and Mosel Trip March 2014.


www.jennylunde.com

A list of Daily Breakfast Specials that is served in the dinning room each day.   Some of these are served more than once during your trip.

French Toast
Egg Florentine
Toast Hawaii
American Pancake
Sausage in Puff Pastry
Crepe Stuffed with Cottage Cheese





www.jennylunde.comwww.jennylunde.com 















Wednesday, April 9, 2014

GCCL – Captain of the MS Melody

Captain Juraj from Slovakia
Captain Juraj from Slovakia

This was our captain on the MS Melody on Grand Circle Cruise Line

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Ipad – GCCL – River Cruise

One of the passengers  taking pictures of castles with his ipad
One of the passengers taking pictures of castles with his ipad
During our trip I noticed a couple of people using their ipads to take pictures of their trip.  Maybe it is  easier to see the screen by using an ipad rather than a camera.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Carnival Fountain - warning sign

bitte bassin nicht betreten kein trinkwasser




Please do not enter any drinking water basin

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Grand Circle Cruise on M/S River Melody Romance of the Rhine & Mosel Trip March 2014




MS Melody at Willemstad.
MS Melody at Willemstad.

Grand Circle Cruise on M/S River Melody Romance of the Rhine and Mosel Trip March 2014

egg benedictYou might ask why would I be blogging about a trip that we took. Well there wasn’t that much information that we found on Grand Circle Travels or Grand Circle Cruise Line regarding our river cruise trip. We had questions that just weren’t being answered either in material sent from the company or online. We did a lot of internet searches prior to departing. If we were wanting more answers, I can imagine others are wanting some of the same too. So this is one of the reasons why I am posting.


appetizersSo our questions were basically the following; what food are we going to be served and what was the quality of the food? Are the rooms adequate and are the fold out beds comfortable to sleep on for the length of our trip? Was there enough closet space? Like were we going to be packed in like sardines during our long river Trip? We wondered if the walking tours would be too slow for our style of traveling. Would they be giving out information about the towns we visit? What could we find in each town to do on our own?  These were things that we wanted to plan out prior to our trip.

Morning Breakfast
Morning Breakfast
Things that we did know ahead of time were, the general age of a typical traveler on GCT. We knew how much older they were then we were, so we were okay with that. And it didn’t seem like it would be an issue other than maybe the walking tours.  During our walking tour this was not an issue. I found that some of the older people could walk as fast as me and sometimes faster than me.

Cheese Cake
Cheese Cake
We were able to find at one time the actually sailing times of the ship throughout our trip.   This was kind of helpful to figure out how much time would be actually spent at port and sailing to each town.

So to the questions were listed above, here are the answers.  The food was amazing; the quality of the food and the service was unbelievable.  They put so much thought into the menus and into each dish.  The plate presentation is carefully crafted.  So what I mean by carefully crafted is they placed a beautifully sculpted round disc of rice on top of the sauce and topped with lettuce greens and gingery scattered herbs dusted across the plate.  The food quality was  impeccable. This isn’t average restaurant food.  Rather this was an adventurous upscale restaurant style food.  So much of the food had plenty of taste, taste that complimented each part of the dish.  They were not afraid of pushing the envelope on taste.  The scale of the food was comparative to the high-end restaurants that we visit here in Minneapolis.  As you can see the food is what really blew me away about this cruise, which was my highlight from the whole cruise.
cabin room 101


seating areaOk now to talk about the rooms.   The rooms were actually pretty big for a cruise ship.  Yes, the pictures online used creative camera angles to show more space than what was really there. But the rooms were adequate.  There was plenty of storage space in both of the closets.  The desk light was very dim and wasn’t very useful, but was a nice place to charge all of our electronic equipment.  The bathroom was quite big for a ship bathroom.  The shower area was big enough so you could actually bend down and pick up the soap if you dropped it.  There is enough room for the two of us to walk around in the bathroom. Yes, maybe quite tight to walk around but the two of you could be in the bathroom at the same time.  The beds were actually quite comfy.
closets
closetsNot sure how they were made, but they were actually really comfortable. There was even a way to raise the head of the bed. This was great because I have acid reflux.   On the night of the captain’s dinner I found myself having issues so I raised the bed and I was able to sleep the rest of the night.

drawers by seating area
drawers by seating area
The only weird item of the storage space was the two small drawers that were next to the sitting area.  Once you come back from dinner, the beds were made and that means the bed is pulled down.  You’re unable to get to those two small dresser drawers easily.  So my hint to you is, pull out your nightgown and whatever else you want to wear the next day and put it in the other cabinet before you go to dinner.


watch your stepOne other thing that we noticed is the floor in the bathroom was quite cold but we were on the bottom level of the ship. The bottom half of the room is below water level, hence the nickname aquarium class. In the morning the floor was quite alarming, so we threw down a hand towel and the bath mat on the floor before walking across it. The other weird thing we noticed about the bathroom was a very high lip on the floor when entering the bathroom.  I caught myself tripping on that a number of times for the first 2 or 3 days but after that I became accustomed to it.

bag storageStorage space for your suitcases is wonderful. Under the sitting area, you can shove a nice size suitcase under it and a skirt covers this up.  This was a great place to hide a suitcase in your room.



Daily Program and city mapWhen you would come back from dinner each night, you would find two pieces of paper. One is a map of the town that you were going to be visiting the next day. The other paper is a schedule of what was going to be happening for the next day.  Your bed will be in the downward position and with the sheets pulled back exposing the pillow and a mint placed on the pillow.  Also the TV will be turned on to the channel that shows the features of the boat.  This channel shows what the menu is going to be for the next day, the names of the tour guides, how to adjust the bed, crew photos, and other information about the ship.


Daily Program and City MapThe map of each town was quite detailed. It listed a couple of places that they recommend to visit.  Some of the ports even had a list of some other places to visit with a little bit of the description of each and an address to find each one. These maps would’ve been nice to have seen prior to our trip, to help us get the understanding of each town.

cloths line For some of these things on their map, it would’ve been nice to have done just a little bit of research. I would have liked to seen pictures of the places to get a better understanding, prior to visiting these locations.  Yes, there was free WiFi, which sometimes you were able to get onto.


incline There just wasn’t enough time to look at these places online to determine if they were worth your time.  To explain about the free WiFi, when the ship sails into areas that have no cell phone coverage you don’t have access to WiFi. If the ship’s main entrance lowers below the metal dock the signal will be blocked too. Best places to get access are the chairs near the lobby 3rd and 2nd floor; and also the lounge area before the ship starts to move.   Part of our morning routine was breakfast followed by sitting on chairs in the lobby to read our emails. Checking our email for lunch was pointless, because everyone was sleeping back home (time difference). Before the ship sails make sure to log on or you will most likely miss any emails till morning.
Dinner in the dining room
Dinner in the dining room

So I hope some of this information helps you in understanding what to expect from your River cruise.  I will be blogging about a couple other things during our trip and some of the highlights that we found quite interesting.  And yes, the food pictures and then more food and then more food.  And on that topic, no I did not gain weight while on the trip.  The plates were proportionally sized.  And I took advantage of the fresh fruit served for breakfast every morning.