Coming to the End of the Line: Bermuda, CocoCay and completing the circle in Miami

Cue the Traveling Wilbury’s (I couldn’t get the YouTube link to work right – End of the Line was one of the songs I loved to play on guitar with John and Paul) John and I had never visited Bermuda. The fishhook shaped island sits out in the middle of …

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Start Spreadin’ the News….New York, New York

Sept. 3-4, 2024 The Serenade was extremely lucky – instead of docking out in Bayonne, NJ – where most of the Royal ships dock for NYC, we docked in Manhattan next to the area known as “Hells Kitchen”. The blocks near the port got a bit “sketchy” at night – …

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O Canada! St. John’s and Halifax

…And the guest talent show August 29-Sept. 2, 2024 1 US$ = 1.3 Canadian dollars We were supposed to go to Nuuk, Greenland – unfortunately a storm and current blew a lot of ice into the bay, making it more dangerous than our good Captain Stieg was comfortable with – …

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Greenland: Prins Christian Sund and Qaqortoq

August 24-27, 2024 $1 US = 6.6 Danish Krone I continue to find glaciers impressive (and I have seen a lot of them over the last few years). So I continue to take pictures – lots of pictures – when near them. Prins Christian Sund has deep enough waters to …

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Finishing Europe: Alesund in Norway, Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Reykjavik in Iceland

Aug. 16-23, 2024 $1 US = 10 Norwegian Krone, 0.91 Euro and 130 Icelandic Krona The village of Alesund was founded in the 9th century by Rollo, in the middle western coast of Norway, remaining a small village until the 19th century when Norwegian townships were given self governance. The …

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Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark and onto Norway: Oslo, Kristiansand and Olden

August 10-15, 2024 Denmark Krone – 6.8 to $1 US; Norwegian Krone- 10 to $1 My sisters ended their portion of the cruise in Copenhagen – but for our very short day in port (about 5 functional hours to see a large and beautiful city founded in the 10th century), …

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Continuing in the Baltics: Klaipeda (Lithuania), Ronne (Denmark) and Kiel (Germany)

August 7-9, 2024 We sometimes wonder about cruise route scheduling – for some reason they sailed us back across the Baltic Sea to Lithuania – the southernmost of the three Baltic States (which includes Latvia and Estonia)- if you were to look at the sailing map of this segment parts …

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More Baltics! Stockholm and Visby, Sweden

August 4-6, 2024 $1 = 10.1 Swedish Krona (abbreviated SEK) We enjoyed an overnight in Sweden – and were joined by nephew Sean and his fiancee, Hannah! (No, this was not previously arranged – their best deal on flights coincided with arriving the same day we docked). Before the continuing …

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Along the Baltics – Riga (Latvia), Tallinn (Estonia) and Helsinki (Finland)

August 1-3, 2024 Latvia, a small Baltic country sandwiched between Estonia on the North and Lithuania to the south with a current population of 1.9 million, has spent very little time as an independent nation. The land traded hands between the Swedish, Polish-Lithuanian, Russian and German empires. It broke free …

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Through the North Sea and Into the Baltics – Southampton (England), Bruges (Belgium), Skagen (Denmark) and Wernemunde/Rostock (Germany)

July 26-31, 2024 At Southampton, we had to say good-bye to our friends Alyssa and Kelly, and walked with them to the train station, and then over to say hello to my sisters Suzan and Mary at their hotel! We chatted, grabbed some breakfast, then helped them get settled in …

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