Hi, folks. On the 17th, we got to St. John's Newfoundland, the farthest eastern city in N. America. The tour had more emphasis on rum than on rascals. We had a variety of samples in one of the breweries. We did go through a building which stores port. To be called port, the brew has to be made in Porto, Spain (I think this is right), but it can be shipped to other places for aging. According to the story, a shipment had been sent to England in the 18th century and got blown off course by bad weather in the Atlantic. The ship beached in Newfoundland and stayed the winter. When the port was finally delivered to England, they discovered that it tasted better for the additional time it spent aging. Now they age it for different periods of time and get different colors and tastes.

The next 2 days were spent at sea, again playing games and eating too much. Alas, it all came to an end on the 20th when we sailed into Boston harbor. We went on a tour of Boston, but it wasn't long enough to really see much history, just pointing out various old building that Americans are familiar with because of history lessons, such as the old North Church and Paul Revere. The tour guide was from Germany and she talked about how she envied American children because they only have 300 years of history to study, not 2,000.

I'm home now, doing laundry and planning another cruise for next summer along with a few smaller trips in between. Until we meet again, au revoir, tata, and bye bye.

GG

Today we woke to rough seas and fog. The ship has really been rocking. We could hear the horn blowing in the fog. It is kind of spooky. Then periodically, some helpful person mentions that we are on the same route followed by the Titanic in 1912. Makes you feel real secure.

On 9-12, we got to Dublin. This time there was no problem and we got our tour. We rode through the city to the castle remains of Powerscourt. The castle burned in 1974, but the gardens, which had been put together over two centuries, survived. Through the years, the owners had traveled around the world and gathered threes and plants from a lot of places. It was beautiful. There was walking trails, fountains and even mosaic steps. I had to be careful on the steps because it was hard to tell where the steps were in the mosaic stones. Looking out over the Wicklow Mountains made for some spectacular scenes and pictures.

After we went got back to Dublin, we were free to walk and shop. Brandi chose to go shopping while I opted for the National Museum. I spent 2 1/2 hours there and could have spent several more. It traced Irish history back to pre-historic times, Romans, Vikings and forward. I made it to the Middle Ages when they ran me out so they could close. BooHoo.

The next day we were scheduled for Cork, Ireland. The dock is on a island called Cobh (pronounced like Cove). Cork itself is 25 miles away. We had a tour for the Waterford Factory and didn't actually go into Cork. The factory is about a 2 hour drive across the SE corner of Ireland. Beautiful country!!

We toured the factory and learned the ingredients of crystal (which I promptly forgot so don't ask), how the components are melted, shaped and etched to make the fine crystal of Waterford and Wedgewood pottery. We shopped some and then drove around the town and viewed ancient walls from the time of the Vikings. Both Dublin and Cork were settled by Viking Raiders.

The next 3 days were sea days. There's lots to do on board, many planned activities. Also, we get together with new friends and play games like Rummy Cube or cards.

On the 17th we will dock in St. Johns, Newfoundland. We have a tour called Rum and Rascals. More history, I love it.

More later. Stay tuned. TA TA.

Hi, folks. Sorry I haven't kept up. The seas have been rough and internet is sketchy. Plus I have family in Hurricane Ike and have received good news that they are safe. No electricity, but safe.

After we embarked on the second cruise on the 8th of September, we landed on the 9th (my birthday) at La Havre, France. Brandi and I had a tour booked to Paris and had a blast. We are ready to fly back and stay a week. Maybe in a year or two.

It was a 2 1/2 hour drive through the Norman countryside and Seine River Valley to Paris. We drove onto the Champs Elysies, the principal street through the city. We saw the Arc de Triomphe, planned by Napoleon to celebrate his military successes. However, he never saw it. It wasn't finished until 15 years after his death. It also contains their unknown soldier from WWI. Next we drove by such famous places as the Lourve Museum and Notre Dame. Unfortunately, we were unable to go inside on this tour.

After this, we went to lunch on a barge that took us down the Seine River which seperates Paris in two parts. We again went past Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower, as well as the French Statue of Liberty (just like the one in New York Harbor.)

After lunch, the bus took to the Eiffel Tower for photos and more sight seeing. Really fantastic!

On the 10th we were supposed to stop at Plymouth for an Eco Tour and on the 11th we were supposed to go to Holyhead, Wales for a narrow gauge train ride through the country side. However, both were cancelled. These are both what they call "tender ports". This means we leave the cruise ship and go onto a smaller boat and go to shore. (The cruise ship can't dock here). Since we had high seas, the captain decided it was too dangerous. So we had two extra sailing days.

I'll tell you tomorrow about the two days in Ireland, Dublin and Cobh (the port next to Cork, although we didn't go into Cork itself). It is really a beautiful country and met very pleasant people just like we have at each and every port.

TA TA for now.

On 9-1 we got to Stockholm. The tour was called "Stockholm Beauty by Land and Water". It only lasted 3 hours which is relatively short by most of the others. We saw an overview of the city with talks about various buildings. All of the cities are very clean with beautiful flowers.

On the 2nd we were in Helsinki, Finland. As you might have guessed, I enjoy the combination of land and water tours. It gives a good overview of the cities. The cruise aspect in this case was quite extensive carrying us around the islands with quite a few sights including ice breakers that keep the harbor clear since it begins freezing by last Sept or early October. These cities usually began as fortresses for defence so there's usually a fortress island 100s of years old. After the cruise, we took a bus ride around the town.

On the third, we got to St. Petersburg, Russia. (The name Russia comes from a Viking term for people in this area, Rus). After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, this city went through several name changes - Petrograd, Leningrad and finally St. Petersburg again after the change from USSR to Russia around 1991. During WWII, Leningrad underwent 900 days of bombardment by Nazi troops and several thousand people died.

On this tour, we first went to the Yussupov Palace. This was built by a rich man who was very influential. Before the revolution, the Txarina, Alexandra, was under the influence of a man named Rasputin. The royal family trusted him because he helped Prince Alexei who was a hemopheliac. However, he gave bad advise and Yussupov decided to get rid of him. He invited him for a visit and killed Rasputin while he was there.

After this we went on a cruise on the canals and the Neva River which flows through St. Petersburg. The next day we went to the Hermitage, an art gallery begun by Catherine the Great. It was next to the Winter Palace where the royal family always lived. (St. Petersburg was the capital of Russia before the Revolution.) The Hermitage is the second largest museum after the Louve in Paris. It is quite impressive and a little overwhelming!

We had a really nice lunch and bus ride around town.

On Friday, the 5th, we were in Tallinn, Estonia. This country became a republic after the USSR broke up. They are very proud of their freedom after living under Soviet Rule.

We went to Medieval Rakeve. This is a fortress from the 13th century. Very interesting! We had a lunch from medieval times, boiled barley, mashed green beans and saurkraut with dark bread and roast beef. We had ale to drink. The dessert did look fairly modern, cheese cake. After this we rode back to Tallinn and the ship.

Today we are at sea for the second day and tomorrow the first half of the cruise ends. Brandi is coming on board and the second part across the Atlantic Ocean.

More fun to come. TA TA for now.

Ok. Got it sorted out. After Vigeland Park, we went to the Norwegian Folk Museum. This is an outdoor display of houses and other buildings typical of Norwegian life through the ages. Most were original and some were several hundred years old. Since they are made of heavy thick slabs of wood, they are quite sturdy.

From there we went to the Viking Ship Museum. This was really interesting!! The ships in the museum were burial sites. The Vikings built very light weight ships. This aided them in their raids, but also allowed them to pull the ships up onto shore to use as burial sites. These were covered in blue clay which made an airtight preservative. The ships are estimated to be from the 900's. One ship held a woman and her servant. They know which is which by the color of the clothes they were wearing. The other ship held a man who probably was a nobleman.

We drove through town and had many more buildings pointed out, city hall, opera house, etc.

Each of these Norse capitals are situated on a fjord or on islands amidst the Baltic Sea. These were seafaring people who depended on boats to get around. There's a bridge between Denmark and Sweden, finally making it possible to go between countries without boats.

In Copenhagen, Denmark we went on a tour about the Jews in Denmark and how they have become a part of the population at times that they were segregated in other countries. The first Jews came to Denmark in 1622. After a ride through town and seeing various sites, we came to the Danish Resistance Museum and saw how they resisted the Nazis in WW2 and saved over 7,000 Jewish Danish citizens by taking them by boat to Sweden. This was Denmark's answer to Hitler's Jewish Solution.

We then went to the Danish Jewish Museum. This was built as a tribute to the Jewish escape to Sweden. The architect deliberately built the building to simulate the feel of being on a small boat at sea. I don't know how he did it, but you felt like you were unsteady. Amazing!!!

We also drove by the Christian Church that sheltered the Torah during the Nazi occupation.

After a day at sea to recuperate, we are presently in Helsinki, Finland. Yesterday we were in Stockholm, Sweden. I'll tell you about that in a day or so. Don't want to overload your reading.

TaTA for now.