Friday morning we slept until a civilized hour, breakfasted, checked out of our room and were on the van to the airport at 10:15.
At the airport we got checked in and thru security in good time and had lunch before wandering down to our gate.
On board we said good bye to Norway.
And hello to Germany
We were met at the airport by Freddy and Gitta Scheld – Long-time friends who live in Berlin and were in Hamburg celebrating a daughter’s birthday.
They had dinner reservations for later so we checked into our hotel, dropped our bags, and headed downtown to see a few of the sights.
The Heinrich Hertz Tower (the locals call it the Telemichel) is a communications tower and the tallest structure in Hamburg 
St. Jacob’s Church. A church has been on this site since 1255. The current building is post WW II. 
The Elbphilharmoie is a brick warehouse converted to a concert hall with a hotel built on top of it. 
Blockbrau – Restaurant and beer hall
At the Blockbrau we met Silke and her friend Andreas.
We had a great time (and a great meal) and enjoyed catching up with Silke (and using the opportunity to do a little tech work for her parents. We’ve had difficulty thru the years sending them photos. We tried a couple of shared albums, but finally settled on Silke’s suggestion of a WhatsApp group.)
After dinner we went upstairs to the balcony to look at the Elbe river and such.
We also spent soem time walking along the wharf.
Then it was back to the hotel.
While I was in a meeting Cheryl, Freddy and Gitta engaged in a rousing round of ‘Shut Up Orville’. After the meeting I joined them for one more beer and we called it a night.
Saturday morning dawned bright and early.
We were downstairs in time to avoid the breakfast buffet rush and ready to meet our Uber driver by 8:35.
No driver had picked up the assignment.
I tried two more alternative types of Uber with the same result.
Finally at 9:00 i asked at the desk if they could call a cab for me.
She said, “Sure.” She took our room number and hit a speed-dial on her phone.
Five minutes later we were in a cab and on our way.
The airport was relatively quick. We had bags checked, were thru security, and on the (long) walk to our gate in good time.
The flight was…a flight. (2 hours – 3 with a time change) and we were soon in the loving arms of Viking people in their iconic red shirts. Because of our arrival time we had our own car with a friendly driver who deposited us pier-side where we were quickly thru the check-in and onto the ship.
Safety videos were watched, backpacks were unpacked…
They eventually arrived and we had them unpacked and the room set up in time for the 6:30 lecture
Then it was off to dinner
This evening there was a “destination performance” – a presentation of the music of the Greek mainland and islands.
Here are a couple of clips.
Tomorrow is officially a port day in Athens.
We’ve been (Cheryl 4 times, me 3) so we will have a “port day on the ship” (translation: Laundry day)
Things will pick up in the afternoon when people return and regularly scheduled events begin as the ship leaves for Santorini.
At that point we’ll be fully back into a routine.
Till then,
R