The Blue Mosque.

No one serves their older demographic better than Viking, in my opinion. We’ve taken four Viking river cruises and two ocean cruises and for the most part the experience has been excellent.

Then we found ourselves in Turkey. After flying all night without sleep on aging aircraft configured badly for rest, we faced a two week itinerary with no lazy days—an outing every day because we would move smartly along the route. We were headed to Greece, Croatia, Montenegro and Venice, where we would stay two extra nights by ourselves.

Of course, some of my favorite days onboard are always cruising days–on the open water, no port activities, just moving slowly along…a book… a movie…a nap….ah…relaxation!

But this trip was chock-full of outings.

To help “guests” choose, Viking rates their outings as easy, moderate, or demanding. On this trip, demanding meant lots of ups, downs, uneven pavement, stairs. And we did choose a couple of those, including Troy.

On Maui in January I’d done quite a bit of strenuous movement and outdoor activity so I felt pretty ok about that. The power went out and our friend’s condo was on the third floor–and just getting to the hot tub was the equivalent of at least six stories of stairs–we ran up and down stairs like crazy all day and then walked the hills on the property daily. No problem.

Ottomon era Library at Topkopi Palace. 15th century.

Has “Art” become a new friend? or is it something more sinister?

But on my walks with my women’s group last month, I’d noticed what could only be arthritic pains—new for me. For several days my legs ached like crazy at night—a new feeling. Meet my new friend, “Art.” Or…could it be the effect of my Covid last month? Because 10% or more of Covid patients report muscle and joint pain and aches. And mine were very unusual for me.

Shield/helmet. War is hell.

Hold that thought.

We figured we’d want an “easy” outing on our first day in Istanbul, since we would be still sleep deprived. So we chose a tour of the old bazaar as well as Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace. Viking rated this one as easy, so I left my walking poles behind.

My standard pair is in our NY house, because we actually hike there more, so I bought a new collapsible pair for the trip. I figured “Art” would like having them at hand. Yes, I was a Girl Scout: be prepared and all.

So, the port in Istanbul requires perhaps a half mile walk just to get between ship and bus. So that morning we walked that walk to the bus and drove on to the museum. When we got to the museum area, our guide told us that the buses that day were not being allowed close to the museums, so we’d have to walk. Ok, no problem. Or so I thought.

Later I found out that smaller buses COULD actually get closer. And others on our ship had those smaller buses. Our group was on a big bus that was 2/3 empty –we could’ve used a smaller bus. But that didn’t happen.

Welcome, tourists!

Because the tourist season had begun, it was horribly crowded. We began to walk what turned out to be at least a mile, maybe more, uphill, over cobblestones and uneven pavement narrow sidewalks, many tripping hazards, in the sun. When I say tripping hazards, I mean hazards that would give OSHA the chills.

The walk seemed to go on and on–who am I kidding, it DID go on and on–through crowds and cars and trucks and cats and storeowners smoking– but finally, we got to the Blue Mosque.

The queue for the Blue Mosque was daunting–really long. It did move fast, but we were in queued in the heat of the sun  for at least half an hour. I had my sunhat, though. I was ok.

Women donned the required head scarfs. We all removed our shoes to enter. When Michael went to the Blue Mosque 25 years ago he walked right in—maybe 20 people in there. We faced  hundreds all crammed in.

It was wall to wall people inside.  The pleasure of viewing the tiles and beautiful drawings was definitely diluted. Looking at photos would’ve been a better experience.

Back in time

Exquisite white caftan. for men.

We then did another long, uneven walk to Topkapi Palace.  I love walking through palaces, pausing to put myself in the shoes of those who had once lived there.

But.

The exhibitions of most interest to me—the Treasury and the harem—had massive lines that were at least an hour long, maybe more. Not an option for our tour, even if I’d wanted to wait, which I didn’t. We did see the library, the weapons of war and men’s fashions. Quickly. And then were off to the old Turkish bazaar, something I’d really wanted to see.

Interestingly, the ancient stone steps around the various buildings were really high–like a foot or even higher. They were challenging to navigate but it was not as much the up-step as it was the pound of the down on my knees. It was like “thud-ouch!” Yeah, I’m getting older. I’m pretty sure I experienced some of this in India, Egypt and Morocco without even noticing. I was younger then.

But this time, I was definitely feeling the pain. Could it be a form of long Covid? I suspect it is because it’s so different for me.

A bizarre walk to the bazaar

That walk from Topkopi to the bazaar had to be a couple miles—again, involving hills, foot high or higher stairs, uneven pavement,

These boots are made for walking. But glad I wasn’t wearing them.

crowds, traffic—it was pretty crazy. By now we’d been out about 4 hours.

Lunch was not included in this outing—we would eventually be out 6 hours without a meal, not the thing to do with older people. Water was not provided during the 6 hours, just a bottle as we departed the ship.

By now people were starting to get pissed. The level of exertion was far more than advertised and many had chosen this particular “easy” tour because of their physical condition. Others because, like us, they were sleep-deprived and didn’t have the energy for a tough road. I was barely hanging in there.

Two women kept lagging behind and finally admitted they could not keep up. The guide, a contractor, had no easy mechanism to get them back to the ship. Taking a taxi back would mean paperwork to fill out and although I figured it would be easy enough to send them back in a cab and sort it out later, that was not possible. We all had to wait around while she had many long phone calls in Turkish. No solution, they kept walking with us. Slowly.

Time ticked on, and we slowly made our way to the bazaar with lots of stops for the women to catch up.

It was a slog.

I love a good cap.

What was supposed to be an hour allocated at the bazaar turned out to be 30 minutes. By this time my body was really protesting so we elected to just sit on a window sill without visiting the bazaar, which was another hilly walk away. Truly, I wanted to see it, but I was pretty uncomfortable.

Several women (who happened to live near us!) sat next to me and told me a man on their bus had tripped and fallen, hurt his back. Again, the guides had no easy way to deal with this, which is a scary thought.

Our guide ended up sending our disabled women back to the ship with another group–on one of the smaller buses, a much shorter walk. So they didn’t even get to return early. I was shocked that they couldn’t just taxi these two back to the ship so they’d be out of their misery.

Finally, everyone was at the meeting point to start our trek to where the bus would meet us. Except one couple still in the shops– we had to wait around for them.  When they finally showed up, we walked to where the bus would pick us up.  This was at least two miles of the same kind of walking as before, difficult, uphill, downhill, stairs, uneven pavement, tripping hazards. We walked so far we were almost at the ship. I’m serious. We could see the ship beckoning. (It was certainly beckoning ME!)

The bus wasn’t at the meetup point. He was stuck in traffic. So we waited at least 30 minutes standing in the sun. The ship loomed enticingly nearby but we couldn’t walk there. Taxis were lined up waiting at just the place we had paused to wait, ourselves. We were approaching our 6^th hour, no food.

I’m singing the Hollies “Bus Stop” in my mind:

Every mornin’, I would see her waiting at the stop..
All the people stared as if we were both quite insane

I felt insane to be allowing them to get away with this kind of disorganization.  Finally, I told Michael I would give 5 more minutes and then I was simply jumping in a cab to go back to the ship and would sort it out with Viking later.

The wheels on the bus finally went round and round.

Just then, the bus showed up. As we drove back our fellow travelers were discussing the debacle of this tour. One very fit guy said “I think Viking categorizes Mt. Everest as “moderate”!”

At the port we made the long walk back to the ship, and then straight to my Ibuprofen. My pedometer registered almost six miles for the day. Six miles!!!

I assessed my options. I’d been looking forward to the next day’s outing to Troy. It had been promoted as “demanding” and I had my poles. Ordinarily this would not be an issue. But I was definitely in discomfort. I decided that going on a six-hour demanding outing with no possible early exit would not be wise. I knew I’d regret it.

I booked a massage instead –no problems finding a time as everyone else would be on a tour in port—and Michael would go to Troy and take photos.

I presented my self at the excursion desk intent on a refund for my tour. I explained the situation to the clerk at the desk, who kept repeating that she could not refund me so she was giving me back the ticket. I handed it back to her.

“Don’t give me back the ticket as I’m not going and I’d like to talk to your manager. Have them call me.”

I’m good at pushback

So Michael always suggests I do it. That’s a story in and of itself.

Personally, I would’ve eaten the cost rather than go. I have made plenty of stupid decisions against my body’s wishes but at this age, as much as I wanted to see Troy, this would not be one of them.

What sultan worth his salt would turn down bling? Rubies/emeralds.

After dinner I got a call from the clerk. “We are refunding your tour, just for you,” she said (“just for me” because i am certain there were many complaints and cancellations for the next day. She didn’t want to open the floodgates).  But that wasn’t all. “And our shore excursion manager would like to get your feedback on this tour.”  I wanted to talk to THEM, too!

Now, a few takeaways.

Last year we went to Norway with Viking and it was  problem-free. Our experience with the present tour and the contract guide they used was not representative of our prior experience with Viking. Of course, I’ve never been this old or feeling the effects of age as much as I am this year. Or the effects of post-covid muscle pain.

At the same time, seniors are Viking’s demographic. They should have processes in place to deal with these kinds of issues. On our Norway cruise a sick passenger had to be evacuated by helicopter in the middle of the North Sea. I was impressed at how that looked so efficient. But this experience with our guides in Turkey did not give me the same sense of confidence.

The other thing is that while I was super-disappointed to miss an outing I’d been looking forward to,  I was proud of myself for knowing my limits. So on the day I was supposed to be visiting Troy, I took some Ibuprofen, had a massage and took a hot tub.

All in all, an ok tradeoff.

Finally, ALWAYS push back when it’s needed. Make a logical argument. Don’t be pissy. But don’t back down, either, if you think you’re on solid ground.

But that’s not the end of the story.

I met with the shore excursion manager who was shocked that Viking Corporate had been promoting this as an easy outing. In his onboard talks, he always categorized it as moderate. He had already contacted Viking Corporate about this, based on my input to his clerks right after the cruise and they had recategorized the excursion as “moderate”–changes would be visible on their materials NEXT WEEK!

He and I also had a fulsome discussion about how the disabled or injured people were handled. He was actually meeting with the head of the tourism company who ran their guides to discuss this soon. As in tomorrow. As we talked, he realized that he had been the assistant excursions manager on our exact Norway cruise and remembered the medical evacuation. I was pleased that they responded instantly.

So–Viking again leads the way in customer service, impressing me with this incredible solution.

And that’s the end of this story. Oh, and PS. Michael went to Troy and said I definitely made the right decision. It was a brutally demanding outing.

Do not miss the photos I’ve included in this post–they seem like an afterthought to the story but they really show some cool stuff!