Galapagoes October 2nd & 3rd 2006 - Galapagos What a flight!! Our agenda indicated lunch on the flight from Toronto to the Galapagos; someone forgot to tell Icelandic Air that airlines now scrimp on service and food. One lunch would easily feed three starved Air Canada passengers. But then, they would have passed out when we were serviced Champaign before takeoff, wine a little later and then coffee and liquors after lunch. There was an unexpected delay since Ecuador insisted that our flight land on the mainland for passport checking. They did not enter the plane on either our arrival o [View Full Entry]

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Easter Island October 5th & 6th 2006 - Easter Island We are quickly learning the power of bureaucrats when it comes to flying. Officials only permit a couple of flights to land or take off from the Galapagos so we had to be air-borne prior to 8:30 am or leave after 8:30 pm since 2 flights were arriving on the 5th which meant a 6 am departure from our hotel. Off to Easter Island (I think I am going to get gills from all the fish we have eaten). Easter Island is a bit cooler than the Galapagos with less poverty [View Full Entry]

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June 15th -- Day at Sea The sun lovers were out all day soaking up the sun's rays. We were energic and did several tours around the track on the top deck. A lot of people may have read that too much exposure to the sun will damage your skin but the message didn't penetrate, particularly when you see some asleep and starting to turn a nice lobster red. June 16th -- Dubrovnik Croatia Dubrovnik is one of UNESCO's "World Heritage Treasures". The City is amazing, it has been maintained exactly as it would have looked 300 years ago. It is [View Full Entry]

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June 12th -- Day at Sea We discovered that 3 laps on the track around the top of the ship is equal to 1 kilometer and so commenced a schedule to walk at least 3 km each day. The sea for the entire trip was perfectly calm, hardly a ripple anywhere. In the afternoon we passed a school of dolphins. Hey, we were heare to enjoy ourselves so off to the gourmet restaurant again. This time I was a little more restained in my consumption of wine. They offered but one galss of each wine they offered was fine, no matter [View Full Entry]

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June 4th to the 6th -- Really June 4th & 5th were one day -depart at 6pm from Toronto, have a meal then lights out at 9 pm then back on at 12 am for breakfast. forget sleep. In Amsterdam we had to transfer for a flight to Barcelona, thus proceed through security again. The female security guard got her jollies when Mare underwent a too thorough body search. On to Barcelona, again Mare wasn't having much luck as an overweight chap from Seattle had the seat next to her and overflowed into her seat. Fortunately there were two empy seats [View Full Entry]

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June 9th - 10th -11th After leaving the port for Nice and Monaco we sailed for Livorno, the Port for Piza and Florence. We have had the good fortune to have visited both Piza and Florence several years ago when we had more time to explore, particularly Florence. The City is one amazing museum. On this trip we had the luxury of being able to sleep in and have a leisurely lunch. Our plan was to have one full day of sightseeing followed by a half day. So instead of joining everyone off to Florence and Piza we ventured into the [View Full Entry]

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