Hanging with Nikki

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So, Nikki had an awesome opportunity to go on a European cruise for practically nothing (except her plane ticket to England, where the ship left from). Her best friend since she was like 6 years old, Alyssa, works with her husband for Norwegian Cruise Lines. The cruise left out of Dover, England and spent 12 days visiting all of the capitals along the Baltic. The best part is that Germany was one of her stops!

It was technically listed as Berlin, but she actually came into port in Warnemunde, about 2 hours north of Berlin. According to the GPS it was a 6 hour drive from Mannheim to Warnemunde. We couldn't find anyplace in town that was affordable so we ended up staying in Lubeck, which was along the way, a little over an hour from Warnemunde. However, instead of it taking us 5 hours Friday night to get to Lubeck, it took us more like 8. The autobahn is notorious for construction and accidents so, while much of it is free from a speed limit, that doesn't help much when traffic is at a standstill because of a wreck.

Matt and I got to spend about 12 hours on Saturday with Nikki, Alyssa, and Alyssa's husband Jarret and had a great time. It was a little bit chilly and kept trying to rain in the afternoon, but the weather wasn't too bad overall for northern Germany and I got to stick my toes in the Baltic. Nikki chickened out and just dipped her fingers in though lol. It was a very lazy day...lots of walking around, shopping, and eating and when the rain tried to get really serious we ducked into a bar called Alabama for a game of pool and a taste of home. They had rebel flags on the ceiling in there!

The day went way too quickly and we hugged them all goodbye as they headed back to the ship, but not before I gave them a little bit of German candy to try 😊 It was so great to see her and to be able to show off my extremely limited German lol. Alyssa said that she can get Matt and I a deal on a cruise too...not the same deal that Nikki was able to get but really great nonetheless. Hopefully it will work out that we'll get to go on our first cruise too.

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Photos

Amateur Photographer
Here's Nikki taking some pictures in Warnemünde

Nikki in Germany
Hanging out in front of a Biergarten

Putting my toes in the Baltic
Wow! Was that COLD! You wouldn't think it would be so cold so late in the summer!

Not too cold for sailing
While it was freezing to put yourself in the water, apparently it wasn't too cold for sailing.