From the Mexican Riviera to the Land of the Vikings

"Cartagena? Angel, you are hell and gone from Cartagena."

---Jack T. Colton

Norwegian Star

My brain works in strange ways.  My wife and kids will be happy to verify that.

While inquiries from clients kept my cruise mind thinking about the Mexican Riviera, in my spare time I have also been watching The Vikings, a History Channel mini-series set in the Dark Ages of Scandivavia.

I mentioned previously that Norwegian Star is returning to the Mexican Riviera for some itineraries in 2013-4.  No, that is not a stretch worthy of the title of this article, but you can see a slight connection based on the cruise line name.

It goes much further than that, literally as well as figuratively.



Jack T. Colton and Joan Wilder

 

There will be an actual voyage link beginning on April 20, 2014, when Norwegian Star cruises from Los Angeles, California, to Copenhagen, Denmark. This 29-night voyage visits the Mexican Riviera Star ports of Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta before reaching the more exotic Mexican ports of Huatulco and Puerto Chiapas. After continuing down to Costa Rica and through the amazing Panama Canal, you pop out on the other side of our continent to visit Cartagena (remember Romancing the Stone?) and funky fun Key West before arriving in Miami.

If you stop there, you will have enjoyed a great Panama Canal cruise, but why not be like a Viking explorer and set off across uncharted territory to see what lies beyond the deep blue sea?

Okay, it's not uncharted territory, but it will take you for lots of sea days before you spy land in the Azores where you'll truly appreciate a port day, and then 3 more days at sea before arriving in jolly old England.

If you watched The Vikings, you know the frontiers of England were the lands pillaged by the savage Northmen, but you'll most likely visit slightly more civilized London from the port of Dover, which is rich in history of its own.

Rosenborg Castle Gardens, Copenhagen

 

On to lovely Helsingborg, Sweden and finally Copenhagen, Denmark, where you may be surprised to find the epitome of civilization rather than the locale portrayed in the History Channel mini-series.

I think that's what I found most fascinating about "The Vikings." When we visited the region in 2009, we found educated, well-groomed, highly civilized people, whereas the mini-series revealed that 8 centuries after Jesus Christ had been crucified, the Scandinavian pagans were still sacrificing animals and, even more shockingly, humans.



Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood

In fact, all those atheists trying to end Christmas and Easter need to see what the world was like before Jesus and, in many parts of the world including pre-Columbian America as well as Scandinavia, for centuries thereafter. If for no other reason, we should all thank God for Jesus taking blood sacrifice out of "worship services."

To learn more about the history of the region, you can get back on the ship for an additional 9-night Scandinavia-Russia cruise on the same ship. You will return kissing the ground of America, thankful that you live in the greatest place in the greatest time in history.

And that is one of the ongoing gifts of travel: returning with the necessary perspective to appreciate what you have.