Last night was a special treat. Many of us went on the optional dinner and entertainment excursion; it was wonderful. We took a short bus trip from the hotel to the Welsh cultural center, the Millennium Center, the home of the Welsh Opera, restaurants, and other entertainment options. It is located right on the old Cardiff docks and was amazing in design. The evening began with a taste of Meade, an alcoholic beverage based on honey and developed by monks. It was sweet and delicious. Our hostess sat us right near the stage so our view of the entertainment would be excellent. The tables were set with red and white wines complimentary of the house. We were given a number of options for dinner. I chose the salmon appetizer, the beef dinner, and the chocolate cake ... read more

Before we talk about today's tour, a word about the weather. Now I have been looking for the right words to use to describe the weather in the southern part of England and the kindest word I can find is unpleasant. A more apt description would include words like wet, cold, cloudy or deeply overcast or downright miserable. Our weather has been on and off rain, cold and drab. It rains in this part of the world 1 day out of 3, so dealing with rain is a must if you are planning to come here any time of the year. This is my first summer vacation ever where I was happy I brought a jacket. I even spent money on a heavy hooded sweatshirt to accommodate! Oh well, we will persevere. After another fine English ... read more

Tuesday was our first formal day on tour. We had an early start to the day about 6:45 in the morning. I jumped out of bed and headed to the window to get a view of the weather conditions to be very pleasantly surprised to see a cloudy but dry day. I checked the weather and was pleasantly surprised again to see a forecast of 64 degrees and a slight chance of rain. We got dressed and headed down to breakfast. Now tour breakfasts are a feast for sure. We were treated to a full English breakfast served buffet style. There was baked beans, cooked tomatoes, sausage, eggs (powdered for sure) potato fritters, a feast of salami and hams and cheese and finally watermelon. They also had a continental breakfast area filled with many bread choices, ... read more

The adventure has begun, and, like all Farina vacations, it got off to a unique start. Last night, I couldn't sleep. I kept playing over and over in my mind the time and travel schedule we had planned for departure to the airport. Cathy wanted to go to 11 am mass , which ended at noon. Her plan was to be in the house by 12.30 PM and we would get to the airport by 1.40pm. That left less than 90 minutes to check baggage, pass through TSA and head to the gate. For me that was cutting it a little close. I woke up at 3.45 am. Fortunately, she was also awake, and we negotiated an earlier plan. She would go to 9am mass and be home by 10.30 am, do the final pack and ... read more

Reykjavik Final Day The weather forecast for our final day in Iceland was calling for snow. Since most of the roads we had traveled on were treacherous enough already, we chose not to head out and tempt fate with more snow scheduled to fall. We decided to intentionally sleep in a little and spend another day exploring Reykjavik. We awoke to see snow beginning to fall. The sky was filled with dark gray snow clouds, which did not allow in the sunlight. This morning was the first time it was actually twilight at 10 AM. This is what we had expected all week. The temperature had risen a bit but was still a degree or six below zero. The main roads in Reykjavik are well prepared for snow. First, they are not smooth surfaced cement or ... read more