January 29, 2022 72°F/22°C

#myvikingstory

Nope. It’s not free shopping.

Frühschoppen is the German word for a morning get-together, when friends meet early (früh) in the day over a Schoppen (a pint), and is particularly popular in rural areas of Germany as a weekend social activity. Frühschoppen is also what Chef Thomas called today’s brunch in the restaurant. In Germany, Frühschoppen wouldn’t necessarily involve food, but here on the Viking Star, EVERYTHING involves food!

The restaurant was done up in Bavarian blue and white, with people being seated in random groups of 6 and food served on sharing platters to promote Oktoberfest-style cameraderie, which certainly worked at our table! That said, 10:30 a.m. was a bit too early for any of us to accept a shot of Jägermeister. It was a pretty heavy meal for brunch – I’d expected more of a German breakfast with rolls, cheeses, and coldcuts – but the warm pretzels and salads were all delicious.

Despite having had brunch, I popped into the World Café around 1:30 to find they were doing a German theme as well. Head Pastry Chef Alessio had baked Mohnrolle (poppy seed roll) that looked and tasted exactly like my grandmother’s version. What wonderful memories that slice of cake elicited! Ted enjoyed a piece of Bienenstich (bee sting cake) that he pronounced “good”, but no comparison to what my Tante Erika used to make.

One of our fellow passengers, and fellow bloggers, posted a wonderfully detailed description a couple of days ago of the non-stop cleaning that goes on here. I was going to do a cleaning post at some point, but I don’t think I could top Garry’s. Check it out here: Kolbs On The Road

Late this afternoon we met with Viking’s onboard Future Cruise Consultant, Hamed, who is an integral part of the crew, ambassador for the Viking brand, and always a really enthusiastic and hilarious participant in entertainment events featuring crew members. We’re looking for something to do this November, between spending October in Ontario with our kids and heading to Mexico at the beginning of December. We’d originally booked a Mediterranean and transatlantic crossing, but cancelled it when our current itinerary was changed to duplicate that route in reverse. Viking’s 2022 cruises still offer a risk-free guarantee, which makes us feel secure about booking.

Things are complicated by the itinerary change this world cruise has experienced. We’re going to be in the Schengen Zone much longer than originally scheduled, so we may need to cancel our summer European plans. Bulgaria and Croatia have both been suggested as alternatives to Schengen Zone countries. If we do cancel Germany and Austria, we may try to river cruise in Europe in November. If by some magic – or lack of passport stamping – we can retain our plans, we may look at Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. As I said, it’s complicated.

We had dinner tonight with a Florida couple who became our kind of “homeless” at right around the same time as we did in 2017. There are many, many parallels in our lives, and it was fun to discover them over a lovely meal. Hopefully we’ll continue our chats as our journey progresses.

For tonight’s live entertainment, Dennis Day returned for his second multi-instrument concert: “Beethoven, Broadway and Beyond”. We really enjoyed his version of classical European composers’ works transposed into Latin American rhythms; Bach salsa and Strauss cha chas are amazing! Later in the program his jazz Rachmaninoff also wowed us.

11:00 p.m. It’s been a full day, and we’re both tired and ready for bed. Two more sea days to go before reaching Santiago.