We woke up and packed then went down for breakfast. Ah champagne was on the buffet. Of course, I had to make a mimosa. Susan had some too. I checked email and sure enough we got a message back from the hotel in Berlin. It stated Dear Claire, thank you very much for your kind email, after your check out, we just needed to paint the room. It is a normal maintenance handling in our hotel. We want that all of our guests are satisfied with our rooms. Ha, so we didn’t destroy the room like the family thought. We checked out, left our suitcases at the hotel desk and took a taxi (nice town car) into town. This was one the hotel set up for us (we thought it was going ... read more

I woke up and ate breakfast. Don had gone to the store and gotten some croissants and I used Dennis’s honey butter. That stuff was really good. Susan walked to the store to get her and I a coke light. Ahhh some caffeine. We packed and headed to the airport in two rounds. Dennis drove half of us over and then went back and got the rest of the gang. Dennis and ViNi joined us for the Berlin portion of the trip. This was our gift to them. We took the local train from Dorfmart and then the ICE train from Hanover to Berlin. Oh my – I’m so glad Susan bought these tickets beforehand as we had assigned seats. Several of us got to our seats and people were sitting in them. They got up ... read more

This should have actually gone in yesterday’s blog. So, I called to get the pins for my credit cards. Susan said they were able to set the pins for their USAA cards on line. I tried getting it online but couldn’t find out how, so I called American Express first. This was for my Delta Reserve card. You know this is a card many businesses travel with. So, I got an agent and ask him how to get the pin. “we don’t have pins”. What, “nope, we don’t have them and you just need to find someone that will take your card and not sue a kiosk”. Are you kidding me, this is a travel card and I can’t use it at any kiosks??? I keep asking and I tell them about the USAA cards. He ... read more

This is a trip to Arizona with Lou, Patty and I. The trip out was nice. Lou and I got upgraded to 1st class on the first flight and we all watched movies on the 2ndflight. We land in Phoenix and wait and wait and wait for our suitcases. Seems ours, and maybe 2 others, ended up on a different baggage turn style. Ok, at least it came. So we get in the Lyft to our destination (oh for the folks in Raleigh where it was in the 30s, it was in the 80s). We look up info on the “resort” and it says it’s an rv park… huh?? Well, it will be what it is and the Lyft driver had never heard of it. We get here and it’s a little retirement neighborhood with manufactured ... read more

Yesterday we spent most of the day touring Vienna. Because we had all been there in 1992 and seen A LOT of the city, we only took the included day tour then peeled off and spent the rest of our time wandering around looking at the sites. It has not changed much in the last 20+ years. Yes, it was still beautiful, but it was nothing new.. there was a lot of traffic in the city and we enjoyed a lot more learning about Sisi but that was the only new thing we learned. Then we took the subway back to the river and joined our boat. Nancy and John had a night excursion. Susan and I stayed on the ship. Few people were at dinner, most went into the dinner that Nancy and John were ... read more