Prologue: On the outset I said I did not think writing a blog while on cruises was a good idea. I was right! Yes, I wrote and saved my musings almost every night so the words I post are of the moment even though they are at least a couple of months old. What's the hold-up? Life! Life was waiting for us when we returned home on September 5. We did a quick catch-up on our house, went to Panama City Beach several times, safely escaped Hurricane Michael, atten...

Warnemunde/Rostock, Germany - August 10, 2018. First port on this cruise was Warnemunde, Germany. It's the nearest port to Berlin and many, many passengers took the 2.5 hour train ride into the city. Since Stan and I spent nearly a week in Berlin during our 2017 trip, we opted to stay local and see what was going on in Warnemunde. It turns out, a lot was going on! While having breakfast, we gazed at the city-skyline from our ship. There was a quite lar...

August 8-9, 2018 We traveled via luxury bus and ferry to Copenhagen from Hamburg. The bus ride was smooth as glass but the ferry ride was something special. Our bus drove itself into a mammoth ferry ship alongside cars, campers, cars, 18-wheelers and other buses. I will repeat, this was a huge ferry. Ours did not, but other of these mammoth ships ferry even trains across the sea between Germany and Denmark. It was a 45-minute ride across the North Sea a...

Hamburg, Germany - August 7 & 8, 2018 It occurred to us yesterday that while we are here in Europe, we might as well make the most of it and extend our stay. Why not??? We contacted our friends, Peter and Sumarah, from South Africa , who have a house in Figueres, Spain and told them we'd like to take them up on their offer for a visit. Well, things lead to things, and we think we'll stay even longer. We are working on a trip that will take us from Co...

Hamburg, August 5, 6, 2018 What a super, fantastic, amazing day. Thank you, Stanley Craig Weeks and thank you God. Today is August 6, 2018. I just turned 71. Who knew I would ever live this long, much less be vital and strong at this point! I am a LEO and I feel that strength through my veins and my bones. Granted, the years and my life show in my face and body but my spirit is young and ready to live many more days. Hamburg is a wonderful city. We...