Geo: 38.8921, -77.0241Our Asian "life experience" was fantastic. I had to write it down so I would not forget it! I always feel grateful for the experience of travel and this was no exception. We brought in the new year with a bang! We left on Wednesday morning before Christmas and arrived in Bangkok on Thursday night. As anyone who knows me well, don't ask me about time changes -- I only know it was twelve hours! And yes, it is really, really far to fly!!! We flew non-stop from Dulles to Tokyo, and Allen was able to upgrade us to business class as an early Christmas present. That was a 14-hour leg, so it was nice for Anna and I to get a little sleep.... read more

Geo: 39.0095, -77.4647We were on time and, once again, were very thankful to have our Global Entry memberships, as the lines for immigration were the longest I have ever seen. We arrived right at 3:00pm, in the midst of all the international arrivals from Europe. We were through in a breeze and, as usual, had to wait for the bags. The Customs line was just as bad, but again we were able to bypass it, and in under 30 minutes after landing we were in a cab on our way home.... read more

Geo: 55.6763, 12.5681Our arrival and disembarkation in Copenhagen was the mirror image of the previous morning in Kiel, but in this scenario, we were the ones trying to disembark for good. We were told to be in one of the lounges by 8:30am, which was the same time we were to dock. When we got there, we for the first time realized how few people had embarked from Copenhagen. There were maybe 20 of us in the room, which included ourselves and the seven folks with whom we'd shared the tours in Stockholm, Tallinn, and St. Petersburg. A few minutes after getting there, we were escorted off the ship. No fuss, no muss. Our bags were waiting for us just inside the terminal, and we then headed outside for a taxi. Ah, here was the rub. ... read more

Geo: 58.2099, 20.8573We were all literally exhausted from the previous few days, in particular the very-full day in St. Petersburg, this second day-at-sea came at exactly the right now. We all slept in and enjoyed a room-service breakfast. While we elected to not return to the overpriced spa, Anna and I did play in the "Olympics Trivia," which we lost by one answer. Sigh. We also sat in the game room and played a lot of cards. All three of us also finished our respective books on this day, which was incredibly relaxing. We also elected to eat in the "specialty restaurant" this night, which was in the ship's sushi restaurant. The food was quite good and service was outstanding. With only a couple tables occupied, and with a view to the sushi chefs, it was ... read more

Geo: 59.4392, 24.7586With the red skies of the previous day's sunset, I'd assumed "red skies at night, sailors' delight" would hold true, and we'd have nice weather this morning. Instead, we opened our curtains to heavy fog and a steady rain as we slowly approached the port of Tallinn in Estonia. K and I had been to Tallinn back in 1987, a whopping 29 years ago. Sigh. We were there, however, by accident. As part of our visit to the Soviet Union as part of a class back at American, we were flying from Tbilisi, Georgia to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in January 1987. Our Aeroflot plane was diverted to Tallinn, however, by ice fog in Leningrad. It was a very surreal experience, as our tour director shared very little information with us. I recall they ... read more