July 4-7, 2024 Corsica is technically part of France, although it spent over 500 years as part of the Kingdom of Genoa. As such, even though their most famous son, Napoleon, was Emperor of France, they do not consider themselves French. The Maison du Bonaparte, the home where Napoleon was …
June 30-July 3, 2024 After we left Sicily, we sailed past the island of Stromboli – which has an active volcano. My own phone photo camera could not get a pic – but pro Matty had the right stuff! (From the ship you could see the flames spouting in the …
June 26-29, 2024 We sailed from Dubrovnik to its close neighbor – Montenegro. Although both are European countries, crossing the border by land can be a challenge since there remains a fair amount of animosity between the countries lingering from the breakup of Yugoslavia and the subsequent war in the …
June 23-25, 2024 Zadar sits on the northern coast of Croatia, and the only one of the three John and I had not visited in 2021. Since we’d spent about three weeks in Split in 2021, and with so many consecutive port days, I made a semi-sea day for myself. …
June 21-22, 2024 After WWII, the northeastern corner of Italy – the little section that covers the north and northeastern portion of the Adriatic Sea became the Free Territory of Trieste. The region was claimed by both Italy and Yugoslavia, so in 1947, to avoid more fighting, the UN formally …
June 19-20, 2024 The arrival in Ravenna, Italy also heralded the end of our semi-private yachting experience . Throughout the Africa segments only 700-800 passengers wandered the Serenade – a ship capable of carrying 2200. For the next several weeks, we will be completely full. Before dealing with this, John …
June 16-18, 2024 With our arrival in Corfu, we caught back up with our original – very busy- itinerary. With a port almost every day for the next 6 weeks, I will be posting mainly photos and minimal stories/ history. We took an island highlights tour with some friends. Our …
May 14-17 The capital of the Netherlands was built on transportation and tolerance. In modern day, Schiphol Airport is the 3rd largest in Europe, and a train station under the airport gives quick access to the city and many destinations. Into the city, the train costs €5.9 pp. Since it is …
May 10-13 The Polish trains could teach the German ones something about Wifi. Another thing that makes Polish trains superior to the German ones – there is no charge to have a reserved seat – EVERYONE has a reserved seat, which you get to pick when you book. We booked …
May 8-10 and 13-14 Polish resilience has led to a general Polish personality – made fun of by our Guru walk guide, Jacek (he asked that we not take photos of him). Jacek joked that when you ask an American “Hi, how’re you doing?” – it doesn’t matter if we …