We started our journey around 10:30. We left in the car with Esteban, Ellen, Simone, Henry (Ellen’s dad), Susan and I. Ellen’s dad lives in the house. He has a separate suite off the upper-level terrace. Her dad is 89 and is in excellent health. Our first stop was to Ellen’s brother’s place. Simone was going to stay with them for the day. We got to meet her brother and her niece. The 5 of us then took off to the markets in Otavalo. The traffic was slow but the drive there was beautiful. Otavalo is about 1.5 hours away but with the slow traffic and 3 stops it took us longer. The views during the drive were dramatic. Our first stop was for views at Mirador El Pisque. We saw a canyon and took pictures. ... read more

After Ellen’s nice breakfast, we got to tour her business. She has a small business, called Laurelis, and makes food for some grocery stores and restaurants. It started out with Danish pickles but has expanded to many different foods and juices. She has 3 employees and the facility is located on the first floor of the house. It has been upgraded to full commercial standards and is continuing to grow. Some of the products are different kinds of pickles, pickled zucchini and jalapeno peppers. The company also makes many kinds of juices using local produce and some recipes are made by specific restaurants and she is not allowed to share them. We were very impressed. After short break she drove us to the food market. Oh my, where did they get all this fruit? I’ve never ... read more

We started our morning in a ghost café. Nobody was out, but us, and it was 6:30. We came back to the room to check on the times and saw the schedule 6. 9. Ok, we were there at 6:30. Turns out I looked at the dinner times, which I thought were the all-day times. Ooops, it didn’t open until 7. What? we are old people; we like to eat early. Ok, this is our first breakfast out since we had done room service EVERY day (not necessarily or choice). But we were not the only confused people there because when we went back up there were 5 other couples. Following breakfast, we took a bus tour of Stockholm. Our guide seemed to have issues. Alcohol? We were glad to figure out and do the town ... read more

Disappointment, no Northern lights. Susan didn’t even sleep with her earplugs in so she could be sure to hear the phone call. We each had our clothes laid out on the bed for the call, all to no avail. Today was a day at sea. WHY could this not have been during quarantine? We figured today we would be washing clothes. Well, since we didn’t leave our rooms for days, no need for that, we’re bring clothes back that haven’t been worn. We started the day with a history of the Vikings lecture followed by a lecture on the night sky at the planetarium. Son you would have enjoyed it, but your pictures of the planets are even better. After lunch we attended another lecture by our astronomer about comets and asteroids. We returned to our ... read more

Today we come into port on Bornholm, Denmark. Bornholm is an island that is closer to Sweden, Germany and Poland that it is to Denmark, but it’s part of Denmark???? Our ship docks outside of Ronne, the main city of the island. Now you can tell this is not a normal place for the ships to come but since they dropped St Petersburg, Finland and Tallin, they added some extra stops. Look at the pictures where I ship docked. You had to take a shuttle into town which we did early. We took the 9:30 bus in and the 10:00 bus back and we had plenty of time. The 2 main attractions are the church and the light house. We even had extra time and did lots of shadow pictures. An hour or so later we ... read more