Home. It was FANTASTIC, but 2 weeks of traveling is WORK!!!

The cruise was great, except the first day and night was high surf and wind...more time for Bingo! *smile* We had first-class service, champagne on boarding and little snacks each afternoon. On my birthday, the servers sang to me and gave me a delicious chocolate cake, part I took back to our cabin. In the elevator, which was full of fellow cruisers, they sang Happy Birthday to me!!! (the fun thing was, most of them were Germans, and sang with a heavy accent...but it was GRAND!!!)

Rome was awesome! Our hotel was near the public transportation, so everything was reachable. We took a tour of the Colloseum, the Forum, Vatican City, and a special night walking tour. The weather was warm and breezy, not too hot. We left by train to Venice.

Venice was, well, Venice! We had a hotel right in the center of town, by the Bridge of Sighs. We traveled everywhere by vaporetto, a special water bus that went up and down the Grand Canal. We ate pizza, and Italian Ice, and I had a popular cocktail called a 'spritz'...Prosecco and an orange-flavored bitters drink. GREAT! We had good weather there, only the last day was hot. We got lost often in the narrow streets, but eventually found our way. We took LOTS of pics! We left by water taxi to the airport and flew to Berlin.

Berlin was inspiring. It was hard for this American to imagine a city split in half, but there were many reminders, and the city tour, that took over 2 hours, was a great explanation! We took the regional train to the station where half was East and half was West Berlin...it was very educational for me to see the loss of freedoms the Berliners had! We ate traditional German food, and I drank dark German beer. We even visited a BierGarten! The weather was off and on...one rainstorm left us trapped in a museum that was passed it's closing time. We were treated very well everywhere. Then flew home, arriving last night. Today is laundry and catching up! All in all, a GRAND trip, but I'm glad to be home!!!!!

I was also very happy to meet face-to-face with my CSN semi-colon friend Pepe from Barcelona!!!! He gave us the 'backstage' tour of his city, including a park at the top of the mountain nearby that gave us FANTASTIC views of the city!!!

I will be posting pics, but thought I'd put this first!

Hugs, Kathi