"Cooler Climates During a Typical Oklahoma Summer Part I" - Time Out #54

There a lots of ways to avoid the Oklahoma summer heat of early August each year.

I'm not particularly referring to hiding in a frozen food locker, although I have given that some thought over the years.

Plan B is traveling far away, and if it's traveling, I'm usually all-in fellow Our Towners.

This past month my bride, Debbie, and I chased a cooler idea by boarding the proverbial bird (i.e., jet aircraft) at Will Rogers World Airport in our capital city, and flew way off to London, as in England, Heathrow Airport by way of Atlanta. From this hectic setting and home of British Airways, we were bussed to England's southern coast, and the quaint port city of Southampton. Yes, folks, the same port where the famous ocean liner Titanic left around 100 years ago on her maiden voyage.

Debbie and I were on a much smaller vessel on this latest adventure, our first experience with the Oceania line of vessels, more specifically, her mid-size (about 700 passengers) Nautica, This cruise line is certainly one that prides itself on its personal service and food Both aspects proved outstanding.

Talk about an absolute flurry of travel in 14 days---11 port stops in 10 countries in this cruising adventure, west to east, through the cool North and Baltic Seas.

Normally my sweet lady's preference is for several "sea days", days in which our vessel does not call on any land port, but we simply relax at sea, and enjoy the ship's amenities. Her favorite one is reading while mine, of course, is people-watching and observing the human animal. This particular trek had only 2 sea days, and 1 of them was artificially created when adverse weather conditions wouldn't allow us to dock at the northern tip (city-Skagen) of Denmark. This avoidance of a scheduled port stop has been a rare happening for us, only experienced two other times in our 30+ years of ocean and river cruising.

Belgium was our first stop, and it filled my desire for several items: 1) it added to my "have been to" country list, 2) I am a military fan, and we toured Flanders Fields and museum where much fighting was done during World War I, and 3) their local chocolate is over-the-top delicious. I might add the Belgium countryside was absolutely beautiful with dairy cattle, crops and small villages scattered among the green farms. It was very picture-like and serene.

On to the busy port of Rotterdam, Netherlands, a large city where we were able to dock our vessel right downtown due to our ship's smaller size, compared with many modern cruise ships.

Here we became well-acquainted with the country's historic windmills and how Holland (their other name) leads the world in technology controlling the various water levels to keep seawater out of their livable land. It is an old, old successful system that almost seems like magic to watch it operate and learn the background information.

Copenhagen, Denmark is a wonderful place to experience with all its charm, starting with the Little Mermaid in the harbor just off shore, and only a 5 minute walk from where we docked. Being seasoned world travelers, DRB (one of Debbie's other handles) and I located the red hop-on, hop-off tourist bus (many world cities have them now), and rode all over the compact city on a beautiful day. After one complete circuit taking a couple of hours, we got off at the historic Tivoli Gardens in the city center, and spent a couple enjoyable hours there. It is from this old wonderful amusement park, Walt Disney is said to have gotten the inspiration and ideas to construct Anaheim, CA's Disneyland in 1955. Both places are keepers in my books!

Off to an isolated Swedish southern port city, Karlskrona, and the only location where we were unable to dock, so we tendered. Tendering is taking a small boat off your main ship and using it to shuttle passengers to/from shore. Debbie stayed on-board the Nautica, while adventurous me took a small boat tour around part of their small island town, and also viewed their old naval shipyard and museum. We were only the second cruise ship that had paid a port call to this remote island all summer, and I thoroughly enjoyed it's quaint remoteness.

Weather thus far? I thought you'd never ask. No heat indexes I assure you. Rather, 60's days and 50's nights, with mostly sun and light breezes. The timing of this northern trip was not an accident on my part, and it certainly broke my home cycle of 6 weeks of heat/humidity that was much needed.

With the cruise about half completed, I will continue with the travel dialogue next Sunday. Please stay tuned....